
L3Z 



right N" 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSFT. 



The 

History of Springfield 

in Massachusetts 

FOR THE YOUNG 

BEING ALSO IN SOME PART THE HISTORY OF 

OTHER TOWNS AND CITIES IN THE 

COUNTY OF HAMPDEN 

BY 

CHARLES H. BARROWS 




W^lxi^^ttmm ^ 

niuiiiiuiiiiiniiiiiuiuiiiiitiiiiiiiii)tiiiiii)jiiiiiiiiini(iiinii(iimiimiiiKiiiuiiiuiuu\iMiKmiiiii/iiiiiui(iiiiiuufl 



PUBLISHED BY 

The Connecticut Valley Historical Society 

Springfield, Massachusetts 

1921 



f7f 



Copyright IQ2I 

By 

Connecticut Valley Historical Society 



JUN 22 !92l 
©CLA617437 



(T 



TO 

THE CHILDREN AND YOUTH 
OF SPRINGFIELD 

AND THE Neighboring Towns and Cities 

THIS BOOK 

written that they may know what is 
interesting, good and true in the lives 
of those who have gone before them 
in this part of the connecticut valley 

IS 
DEDICATED BY THE AUTHOR 



Pilgrim Edition 

1620-1920 



The Springfield celebration of the tercentenary of the 
landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, 1620, 
was held in January, 1921, under the auspices of the Con- 
necticut Valley Historical Society. 












rJ5vt?J5^2*^^ ^%t.^<?y^^/f^'^^^ cyU'^.^^'Hi,*,.^*. A. ^/-^/i ^'-i>/5W> -f- 






V 





1 \.. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I.— Pages 1-20 

Geological History of Springfield and Its Neighborhood. The Lay 

OF THE Land and the Run of the Water. 

Poem: To the Connecticut River. 

CHAPTER n.— Pages 21-40 

The Settlement. The Smithy. The Meeting-House. 

Poem: The Works of God. 

CHAPTER HL— Pages 41-58 
The Early Government. The Pynchon Family. Witchcraft 

CHAPTER IV.— Pages 59-70 

King Philip's War and Its Causes. Battles and Burnings in the 

Connecticut Valley. 

Poem: The Statue of the Puritan in Merrick Park. 

CHAPTER v.— Pages 71-86 
King Philip's War Concluded. The Burning of Springfield. 
Captain Holyoke and the Falls Fight. Close of the War. 

CHAPTER VI.— Pages 87-102 
Settlement of Chicopee and Other Towns. The Revolution. 

CHAPTER VII.— Pages 103-112 
Shays' Rebellion. The Constitution. 1783-1789. 

CHAPTER VIII.— Pages 113-130 

Old Times and New. The Change to Modern Ways. The First 

Steamboat. The Armory. Distinguished Visitors. 

Poem: The Arsenal at Springfield. 

CHAPTER IX.— Pages 131-144 
The New City. Anti-Slavery. The Civil War. 

CHAPTER X.— Pages 145-166 
A Look Backwards. The Spanish War. The Twentieth Century. 
, Anniversary Hymn. 

APPENDIX PAGES 

INDEX PAGES 




Charles Henry Barrows 



CHARLES HENRY BARROWS 

"/ think a better man could 7iot be found in 
Springfield. Sincere, single-minded, gentle of 
nature, pure and honorable in life.'' C. G. W. 

DESCENDED from the same Puritan stock that he 
admired and from William Pynchon himself, whose 
character he has so carefully portrayed in the following 
pages, Charles Henry Barrows was born in Springfield in Massa- 
chusetts on August 4, 1853. His father, Charles Barrows, was 
for many years the beloved Head Master of the school now 
bearing his name, while his mother, Lydia Smith, was of West 
Springfield heritage, having been born in the old farmhouse in 
Tatham in which the Hessian soldiers were billeted during the 
Revolutionary War. 

Mr. Barrows was educated in the Springfield Public Schools 
and at Harvard College and Law School from which he was 
graduated "with honor" and whose Phi Beta Kappa Key he 
always wore with pride and loyalty. His literary ability won 
him distinction at Harvard and he was one of the early editors 
of the "Advocate." Having been admitted to the Massachu- 
setts Bar, he spent two years in Boston as Assistant Attorney 
General of the Commonwealth. Returning to Springfield with 
great joy after his public service, Mr. Barrows made it his 
home for the rest of his life. It was the scene of the practise of 
his profession in which he won great confidence and respect. 

While devoted to the Law he had many other interests. 
His love of the best in literature won for him the friendship of 
many noted men of letters. His travels in Europe, often far 



from the wayfarer's beaten track, Mr. Barrows shared with his 
fellow-citizens in long letters to the Springfield Republican, of 
which he had been a Contributing Editor since leaving Harvard 
College, 

His battles with unsightly bill-boards and against the smoke 
nuisance caused Springfield to be known throughout the 
country as "Spotless Town" and letters so addressed were 
delivered at our local Post Office. As Trustee and for some 
years President of the Young Men's Christian Association Col- 
lege of Springfield, Mr. Barrows was especially interested in the 
foreign students and was doing Americanization work in his 
own way long before the need of such service was generally 
realized. He gave much time and interest to the wise distribu- 
tion of the Horace Smith Fund and made many friends among 
the boys and girls alike who were seeking a college education 
without sufficient means of their own. 

Mr. Barrows was a lover of children, of animals, of birds 
whose songs and habits he knew, of trees whose lives he sought 
always to protect and prolong. 

Though longing for the time when all war should cease, he 
was patriotically concerned in the World War and was a keen 
observer of its course and psychology. Showing his patriotism 
by serving as War Historian of the city by appointment of the 
Mayor, Mr. Barrows collected much valuable material which 
had to do with Springfield's share in the Great Conflict. On 
the 18th of October, 1918, just as the bells were ringing and the 
guns were firing in the prospect of a returning peace, his earthly 
life ended and he was laid to rest in the Peabody Cemetery 
which he knew so well and which he loved so much. 

J. R. B. 



CHAPTER I. 

GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD AND ITS 

NEIGHBORHOOD— THE LAY OF THE LAND 

AND THE RUN OF THE WATER. 




^fc.^*"^ 




The Site of Springfield as the Indians Knew It. 



SPRINGFIELD is located on the bank of a fine river. It 
is true that the river is not deep enough for any but the 
smaller craft, but in the summer many pleasure boats 
skim over its surface. The city itself, as seen on the approach 
from the west or south, with the broad river in the foreground, 



NATURAL FEATURES 3 

and its buildings rising on gradually retreating terraces, all 
embowered in foliage, is, indeed, as was said of an ancient 
city, "beautiful for situation." 

Before the days of railroads, or even of good wagon roads, 
the river was of great consequence to Springfield in the way 
of commerce. It was by the river that the early settlers got 
their beaver skins and other goods to market, floating them 
down the stream and thence by sea to Boston. In the summer 
the river helps to cool the heated air. From the city to its 
source, near the Canadian border, it is about three hundred 
and seventy miles and from the railroad bridge in Springfield 
to the lighthouse at the river's mouth seventy-one and a half 
miles more. The Agawam, which beyond Mittineague is 
called the Westfield, is one of its principal tributaries. While 
its name divides into three English words, this is a mere acci- 
dent, yet it does cut in two New Hampshire and Vermont and 
the eastern and western portions of Massachusetts and Con- 
necticut. The Indians named the stream and in their language 
Connecticut means "the long river." 

This is but one of many Indian names that belong to the 
locality of Springfield, some of which are in use today, like 
Pecowsic, Nayasset, Chicopee and Agawam. Mittineague was 
in Indian Menedgonuk, but has been worn by usage into the 
smoother form. The Indian place-names which are left to us 
in New England, like Wallamanumps, Massacksick, (Long- 
meadow) and Massachusetts are not so musical as those in the 
language of the western tribes, like Cayuga, Shiawassee and 
Minnehaha; but they all have a meaning which is worth 
finding out. 

Besides her share in "the great river," as the English set- 
tlers called it, Springfield has also a river almost all her own, 
a little one, indeed, but just big enough to be called by that 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



name. Its sources are at the foot of the Wilbraham moun- 
tains whence it flows by its north branch and south branch 
till these meet at the Watershops pond. After tumbling over 
two dams below the point of union the river loses itself in the 
Connecticut, near York street. It was so useful in the earliest 
times of the white settlers in grinding all the grain and sawing 
all the lumber that they thought "Mill River" a good and 

honorable name, 
and if those 
who come after 
us are sensible, 
by that name it 
will always be 
known. It still 
turns the great 
wheel at the 
Watershops and 
thus has a hand 
in making the ri- 
fles of the United 
States army. 

Next to Mill 
river, the stream 
that has been 
most important 
in the town's history, except the Chicopee, or rivers that 
are no longer in the limits of Springfield, was the "Town 
brook." The Town brook, called in its upper part "Garden 
brook," rises to the east of St. James avenue bridge and flow- 
ing down the valley, formerly divided near the corner of Spring 
and Worthington streets, one branch going north and circling 
to the north of Round Hill on its way to the river, while the 




Mill River at the Watershops. 

From " Marco Paul at the Springfield Armory," by Jacob 

Abbott, 1853. 



NATURAL FEATURES 5 

other branch reached Main street, near Worthington, and 
flowed along the easterly side of the street, which it crossed 
near York street and thence entered the river. But the waters 
of the once famous "Town brook" are now diverted into 
sewers, where they do a very useful, if very dirty work. The 
brook as it flowed by Main street was once a clear, good stream 
in which to fish. Such has been also the doom of other pretty 
rural brooks that once flowed among grassy banks from the 
slopes of the higher lands in now thickly settled parts of the 
city. Some of them, before the days of steam, were ponded 
by dams in order to create power for small factories. 

One of these ponds covered the region of Avon Place. 
There is a little brook which even today rises not far from the 
corner of State and Walnut streets and flows, for its whole 
course, unseen to the river, passing on its way just in front of 
the High School. It once formed the "Card Factory" pond 
and turned the wheels of a factory east of the Wesson Hospi- 
tal. But in dry times the little brook was not able to do all 
the work required of it; so it was helped by a huge mastiff, 
who was made to walk in a treadmill and thus by the brook 
and the mastiff together, was the machinery kept going, a 
singular example of manufacture by dog power. Springfield 
has even yet some share in the Chicopee river, which touches 
its northeastern border, and to it Indian Orchard owes its 
importance. 

There are a number of natural ponds, mostly fed by unseen 
springs. They either have an outlet under ground, or else the 
water flowing in is so nicely balanced by the water passing 
into the air by evaporation that they need no outlet. Where 
this balance is destroyed by the lessening of the supply of 
water, as by the cutting of trees, the pond diminishes in size 
and incidentally peat is formed. An example may be seen 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 




on the Wilbraham road beyond the North Branch. Goose 
pond, at first called Swan pond, because of the swans that 
stopped there on their spring and autumn journeys, was the 
very largest pond, and stretched northward from Winchester 
square. It was built over not many years ago. Two Mile 

pond seems likely 
-■•".'•■■' to meet the same 

fate. Five Mile 
~ pond, named from 
-- 'its distance from 



Main street, is 
|4i'^ divided by the rail- 
road. Island pond, 
so called from its 
single island, a 
floating bog, is nearer, but little known. Loon pond is a pretty 
sheet of water and Venturer's pond is a pleasing feature of 
Sixteen Acres. The Sixteen Acres mill pond is perhaps a 
natural pond caused by a rock dam. In all there are ten 
natural ponds. The map accompanying this chapter shows 
the natural features and localities as they were in the days of 
the original settlers of Springfield. 

Before describing the lay of the land it is necessary to know 
something of its history; how in the story of the earth's 
making it came to be just what it is, its rocks and soil, its hills 
and valleys. To do this takes us back, perhaps, millions of 
years; for man's history is as nothing compared with that of 
the rocks. Deep down below the earth's surface lies the real 
floor on which all things above may be said to rest. It is com- 
posed of the strongest and oldest of the rocks, called crystalline. 
It was by the action of earth's great heat, melting and fusing 
together the original raw materials of the world, that the 



NATURAL FEATURES 7 

crystalline rocks were made. Look at a block of granite and 
you will find it made up of several things that could only have 
been got together by heat. 

Although crystalline rocks lie at the bottom, they have 
sometimes got pushed up by the mighty forces of nature and 
so have made mountains. If you climb mountains even no 
higher than those surrounding Springfield, and find an exposed 
surface, you will come upon the hard rocks out of which they 
are built. In the valley they are not seen because of the over- 
lay of later rock and soil. Underneath Hampden county lies 
a bed of gneiss, a rock resembling granite. It is quarried in 
Monson and out of its blocks the Court House and Hall of 
Records have been constructed. 

After this solid old floor of gneiss was laid down, some 
very interesting things happened in this part of the Connecticut 
Valley, the story of which only the student of geology can 
fully appreciate ; but something of it may be told here. There 
was, first, the rising of the mountains; the easterly range 
running between Wilbraham and Monson and the westerly, 
through Blandford and other towns. This rising made the 
Connecticut Valley. Then the whole valley between these 
mountains, extending as far north as Greenfield, sank below 
the level of the ocean and of course the salt water fiowed in. 
On the heights of the present Wilbraham, Blandford and other 
towns where the highlands penned the waters in, the tide rose 
and fell and the sea fishes, perhaps sharks, could swim from 
East Longmeadow to Holyoke and beyond, so some geologists 
think. Others believe that the Valley sank slowly and was 
occupied at times by shallow lakes. In those times sand and 
mud were being carried down by the Connecticut river from 
the northern mountains in a way which will be described 
further on, and dropped on the shores of this valley. Many 



8 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

reptiles and amphibian, large and small, walked on the soft 
sand and mud. In the end this sand hardened and became a 
rock called sandstone, having sometimes imprinted in it the 
footsteps of these living beings. Sometimes too, raindrops 
left their marks in the sand and the raindrops and tracks have 
remained to tell a very old story in after ages. Specimens 
like that on this page may be seen in the Science Museum; 
but the best collection is in the museum of Amherst College. 




Footprints and Rainprints in the Triassic Sandstone 
OF the Connecticut River. 

It is this ancient sandstone, called by geologists, triassic, which 
is taken from the quarries of East Longmeadow. 

It was while the water extended from the Wilbraham 
mountains to the Blandford range that a great event happened 
a few miles from Springfield, caused by the action of sub- 
terranean heat. A great crack opened in the earth and up 
rushed a mass of melted matter which finally cooled into the 
hardest kind of rock, a rock called trap. After this, for a long 
time, more sand and mud were brought down from the moun- 



NATURAL FEATURES 



EASTHAMPTQ 



tains. Again a crack opened in the earth, and another, thinner 
layer of melted rock oozed out over the sandstone. At the end 
of this outflow, pieces of the trap were thrown out with great 
force and dropped into the mud near by. More sand and mud 
were cemented into sand- 
stone and shales over the top 
of all this. The reptiles were 
very numerous in these re- 
gions, for one can find many 
tracks or prints in these lay- 
ers of sandstone. 

Some movement of the 
earth made the mountains, 
east and west, rise higher and 
the east side of the valley 
dropped a Httle, as the tilted 
rocks show. The Connecti- 
cut river flowed faster, so 
that it wore down the sand- 
stone and carried nearly half 
of it away. But the trap was 
so much harder and tougher 
that it was left standing as 
two ridges of hills. Mount 
Holyoke and Mount Tom, 




and the long ridge to the volcano Wcrk: map by William Orr. 

south, between West Springfield and Westfield, and the lower, 
parallel ridge. Little Tom, with the ridge between Tatham 
and Paucatuck, as well as Provin Mountain on which is our 
equalizing reservoir. The trap rock also forms Titan's Pier and 
Titan's Piazza. The volcanic rock can be seen exposed to 
view in the trap rock quarries ; also in the railroad cut between 



10 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



Tatham and Paucatuck in West Springfield. Out of it is made 
the macadam for the streets. The remains of the crater of 
this long extinct volcano can still be seen, not far from Titan's 
pier at the foot of Mount Holyoke. 

It was after this that, in an era not 



.^^^ 




so very far from 
our own, perhaps, 
another one of 
Nature's great 
forces, not directly 
fire or water, but 
connected with 
both in its origin, 
* <H set itself in opera- 
^tion to make 
*■ changes in the sur- 
face of the earth 
in this neighbor- 
hood, and indeed, 
over a large part 
of North America. 
This was the Great Glacier, a sheet of ice that, starting in the 
Arctic regions, probably Labrador, extended, in some places, 
half a mile thick all down the continent to a line drawn a good 
deal south of Springfield. A mile measures the distance from 
Court Square up State street to Pleasant street or from Court 
Square down Main street to Mill River. The glacier was, as 
all glaciers are, really a great ice river; for it flowed slowly 
southward, bending itself to go over the mountains in its course 
and bearing the fragments along with it. These fragments, 
when the glacier finally melted, were dropped in places far 
away from their starting point and are now called boulders. 
In some places they are thickly strewn, but are not so common 



Boulders Dropped by a Glacier and Water-Worn 
Cobblestones. 



NATURAL FEATURES 11 

in the immediate valley, for reasons that we shall see. One of 
them, however, now making a memorial stone on Benton Park, 
was found on the highlands near Brush Hill in West Springfield. 

The mountains, composed of the hard crystalline rocks, 
like the White mountains, and of trap, like Mount Tom, stood 
firm against the grinding power of the glacier, but many of 
the hardened deposits of sandstone were worn down. We 
cannot always tell just what daniage was done to the sand- 
stone by the glacier and just what by the wearing away of it 
by the waters; but if you notice how high Mount Sugarloaf 
stands above the meadows of South Deerfield and Sunderland, 
and even how the sandstone hill at the south end of Main 
street is higher than the land around it, you will see how much 
bed-rock has been carried off to Connecticut which was once 
alongside. This bed-rock, broken up fine, as it would be by 
gradual water wear, makes the red earth so common in parts 
of Springfield, East Longmeadow, Suffield, Hartford and other 
Connecticut towns. At Locust street the sandstone is close 
to the surface and the sewer is cut in the solid rock which ex- 
tends southerly from a corner of the South Main street school. 
The long narrow rounded hill at Pasco Road, Indian Orchard, 
was made by the glacier and is a typical drumstick. 

When the great glacier melted away it left a big pond 
bottom stretching from Middletown in Connecticut on the 
south to Holyoke on the north, easterly to the Wilbraham 
and west as far as the range of hills that separates West Spring- 
field from Westfield. This big bottom became filled with water 
and is known to geologists as the Springfield lake. For a long 
time this lake remained, the deepest part being gradually filled 
with layers of clay. When you leave Court Square for Holyoke 
in the street cars your course is along the old lake bottom, the 
banks on either side being in plain view, until you reach the 



12 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

top of the bank itself at the Holyoke City Hall. The powerful 
current of the Connecticut, entering the lake at the gap between 
Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom, as also Chicopee river com- 
ing down from the northeast, made important changes in the 
lake bottom. What were they? 

Away to the north were the mountains of crystalline rocks, 
the White mountains and the Green mountains. Heat, cold 
and frost were slowly wearing them away. Pebbles and sand 
came from them and fell into the little streams that ran among 
the hills. These pebbles and sand were carried downward by 
the streams into the great river. The river carried them into 
the great Springfield lake. The deepest part was in the western 
section, the part east from about Winchester Square being 
nearly or quite filled up. If the current was powerful it carried 
the pebbles further; if it lacked, then not so far: the sand, 
being lighter, would always go further than the pebbles. We 
have called the large pieces of rock, pebbles; but when they 
started on the southern journey they were rough edged. By 
tumbling over each other in their downward course they 
became rounded into pebbles. It was because this process 
was kept up for ages that the crystalline rocks underneath 
Springfield are covered deep with something quite different. 
Where the pebbles fell in masses they made gravel beds, the 
like of which can be seen on the line of the railroad, not far 
from Oak Grove cemetery. 

But the history of the sand dropping is the more interest- 
ing. Remember that, when the flow of water was swift and 
strong, the lighter grains went on and only the heavier ones 
were dropped. When the current slackened, the heavier grains 
stopped further up stream and the lighter ones in the spot 
where the larger ones were at first. So we expect to find layers 



NATURAL FEATURES 13 

of sand of varying thicknesses, one or the other, according as 
the current was swift or slow. 

Sometimes the sand varies in color, as underneath Maple 
avenue in the Peabody cemetery. The children who discov- 
ered this by digging holes to China called one layer of it 
"fireman's sand," for its red color. In fact Armory Hill, 
extending for miles east, is covered with sand of varying sized 
grains. On the brow of the hill at Union street the grains 
exposed in building are coarse and good for mortar; a little 
distance east, on Walnut street, they are finer and not so good 
for this purpose. After you have noticed these different kinds 
of sand, look at one of the great stone posts at the gates of the 
Armory and you will find that it is composed of just such 
sand, only the mass of grains is compacted into stone, the 
color of which is a brown red. This post was taken out of the 
quarries of Longmeadow, where the sand droppings of a time 
long before the period of the great glacier had been pressed 
into stone by the great weight above them, and cemented by 
the iron making a stone or rock called sandstone. Some sand- 
stone is red, some is brown and some is grey, and it is called 
sedimentary, because made out of the sediment, or settHngs, 
of water. 

Sometimes the mixture of sand and mud (the mud was 
only a wet mass of grains so fine as to be almost unnoticeable) 
was not coarse enough to make sandstone but only got pressed 
into a shelly state. This 
substance is called shale 
and may be seen in a bank 
at the foot of Walnut 
street. When the masses 
of grains are so fine as to be 
nothing more, when in the a piece of shale. 




14 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



water, than mud mixed with a certain sticky substance, the 
deposit, or droppings, is called clay, such as can be seen at any 
brickyard. Clay banks mean, of course, that the water out of 
which the fine particles were laid down, was moving very slowly, 
perhaps scarcely at all. Remembering, then, that deep down 
are the crystalline or fire-created rocks, we can read in the sand- 
stone, the shale, the gravel and the sand that lies above them, the 
various movings of the waters in this part of the sea, or, later, 

the Springfield lake. 

f> K ^7'lifki ' 1===* Nay, more; for at the 

Science Museum may be 
seen a specimen of stone 
all rippled over with 
5 the wave marks of the 
% water that flowed back 
s and forth over the muddy 
shore. Such deposits of 
sand, mud, clay, etc., as 
have been described, give 
to the earth, when a section of it is laid open, a kind of layer- 
cake effect, called stratification. 

There is another thing about the geological history of 
Springfield that ought to be noted. The lay of the land is 
very far from level; what is the cause of it? The reason is in 
the fact that the great body of water which once flowed through 
the valley, being some of the time more of a lake than a river, 
had, at different periods, different levels and made for itself 
more than one set of banks. 

If you will go down to the river, at the foot of State street, 
you v;ill find the bank somewhat high and rather steep. The 
stream is well shut in ana mav rise and fall in spring and 
summer without much effect except in the lower sewers. 




Stratified Rocks. 



NATURAL FEATURES 



15 



Look across and you will see that the western bank is not so 
high; in a freshet the water will be covering the Agawam 
meadows. If it were not for the artificial bank or dyke, Mer- 
rick would then be overflowed. Nevertheless, by continual 
deposits of mud the river is building for itself a higher western 
bank. How long this process of filling the river bottom and 
building the river banks has gone on is unknown; but cer- 
tain it is that twenty feet down in the side of a well, near 




A Bank cf the Ancient Lake. 



the western end of the Chicopee bridge in West Springfield, 
there lies on its side a great tree two feet in diameter. 

It is the action of water, building up land in some places 
and wearing it away in others, that makes Springfield, in its 
most populous part, so uneven, yet picturesque. Imagine 
yourself standing at the foot of State street: turn about and 
go up the street to Dwight and you will then begin to ascend 
an incline, until, when you reach the statute of the Puritan, 
or better, stand in front of Christ church, you are on another 
bank of the river, as it once was. Pursue your walk up State 



16 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



street, and entering the Armory gate, go to the brow of the 
hill and you can see in your imagination, a still larger river or 
rather, lake, stretching at your feet. Then you have passed 
over two levels and are on the third. It would be well if these 
levels were called terraces, as they are in geology. The lower 
one extends through the whole length of the city; the next 
appears near Brightwood and with Chestnut and Maple streets 
at its western border, loses itself under Crescent Hill; the 
highest is continuous throughout the city and extends to the 
eastern limits. We may call the three the lower, the middle 
and the upper terrace. They are indicated on the map on a 
preceding page. 

The lay of the land in Springfield is not only affected by 
the motion of the great body of water from north to south 
but in a lesser degree by smaller currents flowing westward. 
If one should start at Cornell street for a walk, along the very 
brow of the hill, keeping as close to it as he could, except for 
the houses and private grounds that would prevent it being 
exactly close, and end his walk at Long Hill, he would find it 




.1 












Flagg's Hillock and Summerhouse. 



NATURAL FEATURES 17 

a long walk indeed, much longer because of the windings and 
turnings of the different small valleys and ravines that cut 
into the general line of the bank. These are the work of water 
either surface water or water bursting from springs in the 
higher lands and cutting channels in the earth by carrying 
the earth itself away. In Springfield this process is pretty 
much stopped now, but it can still be seen going with striking 
effect, at a place on the old Smith farm (now Fitch farm) in 
Tatham in West Springfield, a place that has for years been 
known as the "Cave Hole." The great ravines in Forest Park 
were produced in this way. 

Just how all the separate hills and hillocks of Springfield 
were made would be an interesting study and a few of them 
may be mentioned. Round Hill, for example, provokes a 
natural inquiry as to how it was made. There it is sand, rest- 
ing on stratified clay, standing right up between its three 
enclosing streets. How did it come there? One explanation 
is that while the sand lay that much deep in the valley, 
strong currents flowing in the old lake washed out the sand all 
around and for some reason left this mass of sand standing 
alone. It would be interesting to guess, likewise, on the 
geological history of Flagg's hillock, at the bend of the Bay road 
beyond Oak Grove cemetery. This is the highest hill entirely 
within the limits of the city, being 260 feet above sea level; 
but the slope of Necessity Hill, at the point where the Hampden 
road crosses the boundary line into East Longmeadow is about 
sixty feet higher. 

Such then were the forces, — fire, water, ice, gravitation, 
and heat and cold, — that make the lay of the land and the run 
of the water what it is in Springfield today. They were power- 
ful forces that did a deal of rough building work, sometimes 
in a very rough way. But when plant life began and the sand 



18 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

and clay were covered with a life-giving soil, all over the plain 
of the upper terrace came the evergreen pine, and down on 
the middle terrace were chestnuts and maples and on the lower 
terrace, there took root those grand elms, which have not yet 
ceased to be the pride of the Valley. In the Science Museum 
may be seen a section of one that stood on Elm street, near 
the Hall of Records, and rose to the height of one hundred and 
fifteen feet. Thus a scene of geological interest became at 
last a scene of sylvan beauty. 

Fully to appreciate these changes, climb the stairs of the 
Arsenal at the Armory, on a summer day, and come out on 
the open platform. To the east and west are the mountains 
that once confined the sea; to the north are Mount Tom and 
Mount Holyoke that remain to tell the story of volcanic 
outburst. Beneath is the river, the mere relic of its ancient 
self, but still majestic. All about is a mass of green leafage, 
in which more than in almost any other city, Springfield is 
embowered. The crash of mountains, lifting their heads for 
the first time to the sky, the flash and smoking of volcanic 
fires, the rush of molten lava to the surface, the awful approach 
of the great glacier, carrying destruction on every hand, the 
strange huge reptiles that trod the shores of the inland sea, — 
are forever gone. To the chaos and disorder of the old earth's 
making has succeeded peace. The time is ripe for man; for 
human happiness and love. It was into this scene of quiet 
beauty that the forefathers came to establish their homes. 



NATURAL FEATURES 19 



TO THE CONNECTICUT RIVER. 

From that lone lake, the sweetest of the chain 

That links the mountain to the mighty main, 

Fresh from the rock and swelling by the tree, 

Rushing to meet and dare and breast the sea — 

Fair, noble, glorious river ! in the wave 

The sunniest slopes and sweetest pastures lave;' 

The mountain torrent, with its wintry roar 

Springs from its home and leaps upon thy shore: — 

The promontories love thee — and for this 

Turn their rough cheeks and stay thee for thy kiss. 

The young oak greets thee at the water's edge. 
Wet by the wave, though anchored in the ledge. 
— 'Tis there, the otter dives, the beaver feeds. 
Where pensive oziers dip their willowy weeds. 
And there the wild cat purrs amid her brood, 
And trains them in the sylvan solitude. 
To watch the squirrel's leap, or mark the mink 
Paddling the water by the quiet brink ; — - 
Or to out-gaze the gray owl in the dark. 
Or hear the young fox practising to bark. 

Thou dost not stay, when Winter's coldest breath 

Howls through the woods and sweeps along the heath — 

One mighty sigh relieves thy icy breast. 

And wakes thee from the calmness of thy rest. 

Down sweeps the torrent ice — it may not stay 

By rock or bridge, in narrow or in bay — 

Swift, swifter to the heaving sea it goes, 

And leaves £hee dimpling in thy sweet repose. 

Yet as the unharmed swallow skims his way. 

And lightly drops his pinion in thy spray, 

So the swift sail shall seek thy inland seas, 

And swell and whiten in thy purer breeze. 

New paddles dip thy waters, and strange oars 

Feather thy waves and touch thy noble shores. 

—Brainard, 1797-1828. 




FiK- r Ski i i.i.;);s (^N Tjikik \\av id -iue C'i innkc i u r r \ ai.i.kv 



CHAPTER II. 

THE SETTLEMENT.— THE SMITHY.— THE MEETING-HOUSE. 




LYCH-GATE -ALL- SAINTS • CHURCH 
SPRINGFIELD • ENGLAND 



I 



two. 



T WAS in mid-May of the 
year 1636 that the settlers 
of Springfield leftRoxbury 
to find themselves a home in 
the valley of the Connecticut. 
There were not many, perhaps 
twenty, perhaps forty, who 
came at first. How many chil- 
dren there were we do not 
know; but there were at least 
Their names were John and Mary Pynchon. John and 



Mary were both under twelve years old, but old enough to 
walk some part of the way and some of the time they probably 
rode on one of their father's horses. In fact, their father, 
William Pynchon, was the leader of the expedition and the 
founder of the new plantation. There could have been no 
better man for the purpose. He was alike good and true, 
brave and kind, and understood how to deal with white men 
and Indians. John and Mary grew up to be like him in many 
respects. 

The travelers were, of course, some days, perhaps a week, 
on the journey; for they had only the forest path to follow, 
good enough for Indians, but not so good for people incum- 
bered with luggage and traveling with horses or cattle. At 
night they made a camp around a blazing fire and someone 



22 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

probably stayed awake to keep a lookout for Indians, while 
the others slept. When the morning broke, they read the 
Bible together and sang psalms before again starting on their 
way. As John and Mary Pynchon were born in England they 
were doubtless interested in the flowers that marked the spring- 
time in the new world and amused themselves every day, 
gathering columbine, lady's slipper, wake-robin and the novel 
kinds of violets. Now and then they would see Jack-in-the- 
pulpit sticking up his head under a green canopy, and curious 
pitcher plant meadow-cup, not yet in bloom. In the dry woods 
they would pick partridge berries. As for dandelions and 
buttercups, that now make such a bright show in the spring, 
Mary and John were to reach this region quite ahead of them ; 
for these are English plants that in after years were to spread 
over the country from seeds brought by the colonists. 

At last the settlers arrived on the banks of the wide-rolling 
Connecticut. The shade of the forest was behind them and 
here were pleasant open spaces and rippling waters and the 
bright sun shining over all. To the north was a mountain, 
outlined against the sky somewhat like a couched lion, but 
later to be known by the simple name of Mount Tom. In this 
new home they were, perhaps, sometimes lonely, thinking of 
the homes over in England, but they were not exactly alone. 
Older inhabitants of the land were about them, the friendly 
Indians who lived on the banks of the Agawam and on the 
heights of Long Hill and who were glad that the settlers had 
come, and sold them land on which to build and to plant. 

To John and Mary Pynchon the Indian children must have 
been both queer and interesting as they rolled down the banks 
in play or shot toy arrows at imaginary game. On the plains 
east of the river, and in fact, all about, their fathers and 
grandfathers, time out of memory, had chased the deer and 



THE SETTLEMENT 23 

the rabbit and for many years to come the arrow heads that 
they lost in the chase will be turned out of the soil by those 
who never saw an Indian. A Springfield boy found one of 
these in the garden, years after another in a hen yard, and 
a third at the foot of a telegraph pole where workmen had been 
upturning the soil. The Indians could neither read nor write; 
they have gone, leaving their history untold as men write 
history; but the stone implements they made and the names 
they gave to rivers, ponds and hills, remain to tell how they 
lived and what they thought. 

The Indians planted some corn and peas; they taught 
the newcomers how to make the savory succotash, and the 
dish and the name, just as they gave it, are likely to last. But 
they lived mainly by hunting and fishing and did not use much 
planting ground. So they were willing to sell to William 
Pynchon and his companions a long stretch of excellent land 
on both sides of the river. Their own planting grounds were 
at the mouth of the Agawam river, near which they cured 
their fish for winter use and they sold to the settlers Massack- 
sick, (Longmeadow)', Usquaiok, which is the land in the neigh- 
borhood of Mill river, and Nayasset, the meadow land stretch- 
ing north from Round Hill. All these lands were good for 
planting and pasture. That extending up the hills back from 
the river on both sides had no value to the Indians but for 
hunting, and they seem to have been willing that the whites 
should use it in common with them for that or any other pur- 
pose, like the cutting of firewood. The land was made over 
to the settlers by a written deed, the meaning of which was 
carefully explained to the Indians, and their chief men signed 
it by making, each, a picture at the bottom. Their pictures 
included an arrow, a canoe, a bow and a feather, things of 
everyday Indian use. The price paid was eighteen fathom of 



24 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



wampum, eighteen coats, eighteen hoes, eighteen hatchets 
and eighteen knives. 

Why did the settlers choose this place right here in the 
valley, close by a tribe of savages, instead of establishing 
themselves on the highlands or remote from the river? First, 
because the land, all Massacksick, Usquaiok and Nayasset, 
was excellent land for cultivation; and, again, because being 
near the river was like being today on the line of a railroad. 
The Indians were continually going up and down the stream 
in their canoes and, by the river, beaver and other skins could 
be sent away to market and other goods brought from Boston 
or England. Mr. Pynchon was a shrewd trader and made much 
money by buying skins of the Indians to send away. The 
beaver, almost humanly wise in building its curious dams, 
has been, of course, long since gone, and is not now found 
nearer than northern Maine; but in those days, the region 
about and above Westfield was the heart of the beaver country, 
for the valley trade. The otter, (page 18) a fish-eating animal, 
was once common, but is now very rare hereabouts. 




A Settlement with Wellsweep and Virginia Rail Fence. 



THE SETTLEMENT 25 

Just where the houses of the settlers should be on this 
great tract of land which they bought was, of course, an im- 
portant question. At first they expected to settle on the 
Agawam meadows, and, in fact, had put up one house there; 
but the Indians told them that the meadows were flooded in 
high water; so they decided in favor of the east side of the 
"Great River," as they began to call the Connecticut, and 
they did, in fact, call it by no other name for a hundred years. 
From Round Hill and above, down to Mill river lay a good 
stretch of plough land, good for corn and wheat, and right 
across the stream was ample pasture. This meadow land was 
bounded on the east by a long narrow marsh, so full of hum- 
mocks that they began to call it "hassocky marsh." It 
occupied land between the present Main street and the line 
of Chestnut and Maple streets. Its west boundry was the 
brook mentioned in the previous chapter. It must have been 
somewhat troublesome and of course was filled long since; 
but by jumping from one hummock to another, the high and 
dry land could be reached, where there was a heavy growth 
of trees, some of them probably maple and chestnut; so that 
Maple and Chestnut streets are properly named. 

From these trees could be cut wood for the fire or timbers 
for canoes; but good, large canoe timber was so scarce that 
after a man, with much labor had got a canoe made, he was 
not allowed to sell it out of the town without consent of the 
inhabitants. It having been decided where the street should 
be, the houses all on the west side, each settler's land extended 
in a rectangular form eastward from his house across the 
marsh to the upper terrace and westward across the river for 
some distance into the meadows there. A century and a half 
were to pass before there would be a bridge over the stream. 
Connecting the street with the river was a narrow lane in the 



26 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



line of the present Elm street and another which is the present 
Cypress street. At the foot of the first lane, close to the river, 
were the training field, the burying ground and the pound. 
Another lane was opened to the "lower landing" at York 
street. 

Nothing has been told us about the early house building, 
but many settlements resembling that in the picture have 

been made in New 
England and other 
parts of the country. 
It was warm weather 
and at first there were 
probably rude camps, 
made of the boughs 
of trees. The first 
house was presumably 
of logs, the cracks 
filled with clay or mor- 

Thatching the Shed. tar tO kcCp OUt the 

cold. For a roof there would be a thatch of straw or grass. 
When the long snowy winter began, so unlike the short open 
winters in England, where flowers sometimes bloom in Febru- 
ary, they perhaps felt very comfortably settled. It may be 
that some of the first houses were not of logs. The falls in 
Mill river were set to work as soon as the machinery of a saw 
mill could be got from Boston; and the result was boards 
and shingles and clapboards, for those who could afford them. 
When the first crop of grain had been raised and threshed 
out with the flail, the same little stream was set to the grind- 
ing. No wonder that they called it Mill river, regardless of 
the Indian name. Its mills were all in all to them, for now, 
thanks to it, they had good housing and wholesome living. 




THE SETTLEMENT 



27 



In some respects, indeed, they lived better than in the old 
country. They had to get used to much colder winters; and 
many conveniences which they had enjoyed before, they could 
not have here. But the land easily gave them enough to eat 
in greater plenty than England could have done; partly 
because of their cultivated fields, partly because of the wild 
game, such as quail, partridge, ducks and pigeons. In fall 
and spring the pigeons passed over, sometimes in such num- 
bers as almost to darken the sky. These they caught in nets. 
Game birds were shot with a fowling piece for scattering the 
shot among a number of birds at once, like that on the shoulder 
of Miles Morgan in the Court Square statue. If woodchucks 
or moles became troublesome to the crops, there was a simple 
way of catching them by bending down a slender staddle 




fitted with a slipnoose and slightly fastening the end by a peg. 
When the offender nibbled the bait and was caught, he was 
jerked into the air and hung suspended. 

Established at last in the wilderness, all alone except for 
a few Indians, how was it that the forefathers, grown-ups and 
children, employed themselves? What did they do for work 
and play? There was plenty of work: cutting down trees for 



28 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



firewood; hollowing great logs for canoes; planting corn in 
spring, hoeing it in summer and husking and threshing it in 
the autumn; boxing pine trees on the plains and making the 
oozing pitch into tar and rosin; cutting grass for hay and 
getting it into stacks for winter use. In these things the 
young folks, and even children, must have had an important 
share. The many mechanical helps to labor in these days were 
lacking and it was a time when "many hands make light 
work," even little hands. 

In that day and, indeed, well along into the nineteenth 
century, boys and girls had to invent and make many more 
of their playthings than they do now, when so much is done 
by machinery. Girls could make rude dolls and boys make 
traps and snares and little water wheels and pin bo"xes out of 

the stems of elderwood. Here is an 
English boy of five hundred years ago 
who probably made the windmill he is 
whirling, just such a one as boys make 
now; and below is "Mary Bump," 
an aged Springfield doll. Her body is 
a corn-cob. There was not much art 
but there was invention and imagina- 
tion, and it is from these, in the end, 
that art comes. 

Some of the comforts of the old 
country were wanting, but they were 
more than made up in the spirit of 
freedom and independence in a land 
where some great lord could not turn 
the people off the soil if he chose, and 
where they could worship God in the way they pleased. It 
was not so in England. Only Mr. Pynchon had been a land- 





THE SETTLEMENT 



29 



holder there and not many years after the settlement of 
Springfield the fierce struggle going on in England for politi- 
cal and religious liberty ended in a civil war, which cost King 
Charles his crown and life. The fact that the settlers here 
had land for the using of it made them all farmers, whatever 
calling they had followed in the old country. To cultivate 
the soil was the most natural and easy thing to do. At first 
there was no minister (we are spef?king of all the early times) 




Old-Time English Children^ Playing Horse. 

who was not also something of a farmer, as many ministers 
were, even down to Dr. Osgood in the nineteenth century. 

But there is one trade which is very necessary even to a 
small community of farmers; there are horses and oxen to 
be shod, plows mended and all sorts of farming and domestic 
implements to be repaired, and in a place so far away from 
the rest of the world as Springfield, these would sometimes 
need to be made on the spot. For all this there was need of 
a blacksmith. After ten years had passed no one had come 
to the settlement who could do this work or do it well. There 
are many kinds of smiths, like whitesmiths and locksmiths, 
and how many people gave especial attention to smithery is 



30 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

plain when one stops to consider how common is the name 
of Smith. But the blacksmith is, in a young settlement like 
Springfield, the most important of all. The townspeople felt 
that they must have a blacksmith, and just as one puts up a 
bird box expecting the birds to come and nest in it, they 
actually paid Francis Ball in wheat for building a blacksmith 
shop when there was no smith in sight. It had a chimney 
and forge, and one door and a window. There were rings in 
the chimney. 



o 


' 


- ^ 


H 


fjl' 


^tt tbt 0parh6; fjouj thrp flp! 




mg^^^^t 


H 


^^i^ 


Utt tbc anliil nno! 
fiammerrti barb, voclbrii tigbl, 


^^ww 


^^p 


1 


tt 


3ron to iron shall dino. 


^^»L^ 


P^^-^ 


u 


i^m 


'S^^^^'^^Ji 


V ^m^v^ 


^^i 


1 


w 



The building done, Mr. Pynchon, through his agent in 
London, bought a blacksmith ; a strange thing to do, but this 
is the way it came about. There was war between England 
and Scotland and in the battle of Dunbar the Scotch were 
defeated and many of them brought as prisoners to England. 
Not knowing what to do with them, the English, following 
the custom of those days, sold them into slavery, but not a 
slavery for life. In the end they were to be free. Such was 
the lot of John Stewart, who was sent to Mr. Pynchon in this 
plantation ■ and at once established in the new smithy. This 
was a great blessing to the village and, one can well imagine, 



THE SETTLEMENT 31 

a source of never ending interest to its children. There is a 
charming mystery in the union of two pieces of red hot metal, 
whose explanation, if there be one other than the power and 
mystery of God Himself, lies far back in the secret laws and 
workings of nature. 

All that Longfellow has written of the Village Blacksmith, 

"A mighty man is he 
With large and sinewy hands," 

was doubtless true of John Stewart, as all the children be- 
lieved, when they looked in at the open door. When the 
blacksmith had paid by his work for his passage over the sea 
and the other expenses Mr. Pynchon had incurred for him, 
he was given his freedom by Pynchon and the town presented 
him with the smithy. 

About the time that the smithy was built it was decided 
to build a meeting-house. Before this, when the townsmen 
met to make rules for the plantation, or all the people met for 
worship, they had gathered in a private house, or in summer, 
perhaps, under some wide-spreading 
tree. Everything was as yet very simple 
as compared with the old country, 
where they had churches of stone, 
some of them quite beautiful with 
tower and colored windows, and curious 
carvings without and within. Notice 
the contrast between the churches repre- 
sented on these pages. In the sim- - q^J^^^^ erZvESPouT. 
plicity of the new world one building stoney stratfcrd, eng. 
must serve for all public gatherings, be it public worship or 
town meeting. So they spoke not of the church, but called 
the building the "meeting-house." In the language of the 




32 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

law, in Massachusetts, this is the word still used. Town and 
church were pretty much the same in the early days of New 
England and the whole village supported the one and only 
minister. 

It was planned that the meeting-house should be forty 
feet long and twenty-five feet wide; that it should have two 
floors or stories, the lower one to be nine feet high. For a 
time the upper one was used for storing grain, until, at last, 
the people began to be afraid that the heavy weight would 
come down upon them and they took away the floor and 
built galleries round about the sides. But this was not for 
several years. The building having been planned, it was de- 
cided that it should be placed on the spot which is now the 
southeast corner of Court Square. Thomas Cooper was em- 
ployed as the contractor who should construct it. He agreed 
to take his pay in wheat, peas, pork, wampum, debts and 
labor. It is easy to see from this what, in those days, was 
most common in passing from hand to hand. Not a penny 
of English money was to be paid for building the meeting- 
house; it was too scarce. Wampum was the money of the 
Indians and made of shells. Upon the meeting-house there 
were built two turrets or little towers. One was for the bell; 
in the other a watchman could stay during service or at other 
times, should the Indians be hostile, and watch lest some 
Indian thief steal into the village or even a whole war party 
make a sudden dash into the street. 

In order that we may see all the townspeople gathered 
together, in these early days, let us make in imagination our 
attendance at the meeting-house at the hour of public worship 
on some Sunday. The sacred day had begun at sundown of 
Saturday and will end when the Sunday's sun has set behind 
the Berkshire hills. It is, we will say, the year 1663. Passing 



THE SETTLEMENT 



33 



along the main street and turning down the lane that has 
since been widened and called Elm street, we enter, as all 
the people do, by the side door on the south. There seems to 
have been no door opposite the pulpit. We find ourselves 
directly under one of the galleries. Some of the people are 
already seated and others are coming in. They know it is the 




Church of Old Springfield, England. 



time of service, not because they have any clocks or watches 
(most of them), but because John Mathews has been beating 
the drum up and down the street and because the bell in the 
turret is now ringing. 

The people are seating themselves just where it has been 
voted that they shall sit. Anyone who should sit elsewhere 
would be Hable to a fine of three shillings and four pence. 



34 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

We are taken up the alley, as they called it, on the south side 
and are shown into a seat not far from the pulpit. Just before 
us, in the front seat, are some of the selectmen, among them 
Thomas Cooper, the builder of the house. Back of us is 
Thomas Day, who had married his daughter, Sarah, but 
neither Sarah Day nor her mother is sitting with the husband. 
In those days it was not thought proper that the women should 
sit with the men, and the women all found seats together. 
Up in the gallery we notice Miles Morgan in the place where 
the selectmen have appointed him to be in order to check 
any disorder among the boys or young men. Most of them 
are sitting there. Next the pulpit, in the deacon's seat, dis- 
tinguished in some way from the other seats, is Deacon Chapin. 
Just how he looked or how Miles Morgan looked, if one gazed 
directly into their faces, nobody knows; but the statues in 
their honor show us what kind of men they were, what sort 
of garments they wore and how they appeared as they went 
about the town. The sculptor has represented Deacon Chapin 
on his way to "meeting" and Miles Morgan going afield with 
his hoe and fowling piece. 

Most of the people whom we see in the audience are of 
English birth or descent, but Reice Bedortha probably came 
from Wales and John Riley was from Ireland. Peter Swink, 
who sits under the gallery, is a black man in the family of 
Mr. Pynchon and in the seventh seat is John Stewart, the 
Scotchman. Longfellow writes of the village blacksmith that 

"He goes on Sunday to the church 
And sits among his boys," 

but our blacksmith seems not to have been blessed with any 
family except his wife. We may suppose, though, that when 



THE SETTLEMENT 35 

at his smithy be made friends with the children who 

"coming from school, 
Looked in at the open door," 

if, indeed, there was a school in those days. 

We notice an especial seat, which we are afterwards told 
was made for a guard of soldiers, and therefore called "the 
guard's seat." No guard now occupies it, for the Indian war, 
that raged in the Connecticut colony about the time when 
the town was settled, is long since over and the Springfield 
Indians have always been peaceable; so the guard's seat is 
occupied by boys, who like to get together in it or to sit on 
the pulpit stairs. Anthony Dorchester sits with them to keep 
order, for even old time boys were mischievous. Sometimes 
on week days they broke the meeting-house windows in their 
games, and this meant a fine of twelve pence apiece. 

In some of the New England churches wealth and rank 
determined where people should be seated. This was at times, 
and perhaps always, to a certain extent, regarded in Spring- 
field; but not so much as in some other places. Age was also 
regarded. As much as the forefathers loved freedom and as 
much as they, in their sturdy principles, have done to promote 
equal rights for all, they were not yet free from many old 
world notions about rank and the importance of property in 
giving a standing in society. Outside the church these things 
are very liable to be wrongly estimated, but inside it might 
be supposed that those who studied the Bible would remember 
what is there said: "The rich and the poor meet together; 
the Lord is the maker of them all." Yet even as late as the 
early part of the last century, in the old white church of West 
Springfield, an all-compelling custom did not admit of a young 



36 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



woman taking a front seat in the gallery where the unmarried 
women sat, unless she wore a silk gown, and of course some 
could never afford it. Thus sometimes do men forget that 
God is no respecter of persons and only a pure heart counts 
in his sight. 




First Meeting-House in West Springfield. 

Soon the minister enters. He wears a black gown and white 
neck band. As he approaches the pulpit stairs, the boys who 
are sitting there give way and he mounts to his high seat. 
He prays and reads from the big Bible and then begins his 
sermon. There is no clock ; but by him stands the hour glass, 
and, if the sermon is very long, he has to turn the glass and 



THE SETTLEMENT 



37 




start the sand running again. Sermons were long in those 
days. Paper, too, was scarce and costly, and for this reason 
they were written so fine that they had to be read slowly. 
When the minister has finished, the people pass reverently 
out, pursuing their several ways up and down the village road, 
which is indeed the Main street, but almost the only one. 

Some of the boys have 
stopped on the edge 
of the hassocky marsh 
and are looking into 
the brook. They are 
planning to drop a fish 
Wi line in there tomorrow. 
Perhaps, if they cross 
the marsh, they will flush a crane. 

A smithy had been built and a meeting-house, but as yet, 
after the lapse of forty years, there had been no schoolhouse. 
We read in the town records of no teacher paid by the town. 
Perhaps there were, irregularly, dame schools, taught by some 
woman, who like Goody Two 
Shoes, received her pay di- 
rectly from the parents. 
The most that the children 
learned was probably reading 
and writing, and it was not 
common for girls to write. 
Even some of the men, as a dame school. 

In other days 
Miles Morgan, could not Our fathers leamed the horn-book and the rule, 

. ^ They toed the line .or topped the dunce's stool; 

write. In 1675 there arrived An ancient dame presided as they read, 

And if they erred, her thimble rapped each head; 
in fhp tn-W7n nnP Daniel Each little girl a sampler made, in time, 
m ine town one l^dUiei ^^d wrought thereon her simple faith, in rhyme. 

Denton, who was qualified Esther w. Bates. 

to teach. He was at once employed for this purpose. He 




da/r^&l^/l 



38 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

wrote a fair hand and was chosen to write the records of the 
town business. For a time he taught in a private house. 
Then a schoolhouse was built. It may seem strange that it 
was placed on the upper Ferry lane, now Cypress street; but 
the land was well taken up at the center of the village and 

then, again, the children would be 
coming from not only as far south as 
Long Hill or Longmeadow, but as far 

Atttograph of the First , ^^, . 

Schoolmaster, UOrth aS ChlCOpCC. 

After a while a rule was made that for every child in attend- 
ance the parent must furnish a load of wood for the school- 
house fires. It was a simple school, not of much value for 
older boys and girls, perhaps. There was reading, writing 
and spelling, and perhaps some arithmetic; and if Daniel 
Denton came from England, as perhaps he did, he had some- 
thing to tell the children of the Old World, which they would 
never see, and of which there were no newspapers and very 
few books to tell them. There were no Sunday schools in 
those days and perhaps the best teaching in the school was 
concerning the great things of God such as those set forth in 
the following verses, which were taught to some of the Spring- 
field children in the nineteenth century by Dr. Peabody, of 
whom we shall read later on. 




THE SETTLEMENT 39 



THE WORKS OF GOD. 

To be Spoken by Children. 

The God in whom I ever trust 
Hath made my body from the dust; 
He gave me life, He gave me breath, 
And He preserves me still from death. 

He made the sun, and gave him light; 
He made the moon to shine by night ; 
He placed the brilliajit stars on high, 
And leads them through the midnight sky. 

He made the earth in order stand ; 
He made the ocean and the land; 
He made the hills their places know. 
And gentle rivers round them flow. 

He made the forest, and sustains 
The grass that clothes the fields and plains; 
He sends from heaven the summer showers. 
And makes the meadows bright with flowers. 

He made the living things ; with care 
He feeds the wanderers of the air ; 
He gave the beasts their dens and caves; 
And fish their dwelling in the waves. 

He called all beings into birth 
That crowd the ocean, air, and eartTi; 
And all in heaven and earth proclaim 
The glory of His holy name. 

—Peabody, 1799-1847. 




CHAPTER III. 

THE EARLY GOVERNMENT— THE PYNCHON 
FAMILY.— WITCHCRAFT. 

WE HAVE already seen that the meeting-house was the 
town house as well as the church; here the men of 
the plantation met to arrange all its business. One 
who did not come or who was late had a fine to pay. Even 
Deacon Chapin was fined for an absence, such was the impor- 
tance which the forefathers placed upon a careful attention 
to public affairs. In our own day the President of the United 
States has often set the example for others by leaving his 



42 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

pressing duties at Washington and traveling many hundred 
miles, in order to cast his vote, a vote that counted among 
the thousands no more than any other. 

After eight years the plantation decided to place its affairs 
in the hands of a committee, a committee which should be 
chosen once a year; so they selected Henry Smith, Thomas 
Cooper, Samuel Chapin, Richard Sikes and Henry Burt, to serve 
for the first year. They were called "select townsmen" or 
"selectmen" and were given power "to order anything that 
they shall judge best for the good of the town." After that 
the voters generally met only once or twice a year. Some of 
the declared duties of the selectmen were to lay out public 
highways, make bridges, repair highways, see to the scouring 
of ditches, to the killing of wolves, and to the training of 
children in some good calling. Some of these duties, like the 
laying out of streets, still belong to the city council and some 
have become obsolete. 

It seems odd to read about the scouring of ditches, for 
ditches are more used in the old countries, especially in Hol- 
land, for the dividing of lots, than here; but it was necessary 
to keep the town brook clean, for in it the villagers washed 
their fresh-killed beef and pork, and from it, to some extent, 
they probably got water for domestic purposes. For two 
centuries the town brook was a very useful institution and 
deserves to be remembered. 

The selectmen were especially charged with the killing of 
wolves, for these were a great trouble, howling and hungry 
when their food was scarce and picking up cattle and stray 
pigs that happened to be in the outlands. The town owned 
a wolf trap. Its stout jaws, hidden by a screen of leaves, 
when stepped on by the unwary animal, would come together 
with a powerful snap and hold him by the leg. He could be 



THE SETTLEMENT 



43 



baited by a bleating lamb as in the picture. Another scheme 
was to so adjust a gun that it would go off when the wolf 
stepped on a certain spot, to get the bait of meat; but occa- 
sionally an innocent cow got killed instead of the wolf. A 
large reward, equal in money of today to about ten dollars, 
was paid by the town for every wolf killed and the slayer had 
to bring the ears, or the head or the tail of the beast to the 
selectmen for proof. 

In those days children were more disturbed with stories 
about wolves than bears, but when in later years, the wolves 
had been killed off, bears began to be troublesome, for they 
liked pig pork, butchered by themselves, too well; so a re- 
ward was offered for bears and also for catamounts or pan- 
thers. It was not only the wild animals that the select- 
men had to look after. Everybody 
kept pigs and the porkers were always 
watching for a chance to roam about 
and root up pastures and break 
through fences with their strong 
snouts. In the fall they were looking 
for acorns, just as they do now in 
the southern states. So the town 
ordered that they should wear a yoke 
and have a ring in the nose. 

It must have been difficult to 
make a yoke stay on a pig and many 
were careless about it; so John 
Stewart, the blacksmith, was given 
power to catch every stray pig that 
was not yoked and rung, and then 
having put a yoke on his neck and 
a ring in his nose, to collect pay of 




44 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

the owner. A man who looked after swine in this way was 
called a hogreeve and for a long period hogreeves were an- 
nually chosen. There were also officers called field drivers, 
who were to take to the town pound any horse or cow found 
straying, especially if doing damage. The pound was on 
the northwestern part of what is now Court Square and was 
in charge of a pound-keeper. In after years it was on the 
spot where now Pleasant street is located. 

Another duty of the selectmen was that of perambulation. 
Perambulation is a very long word for a very long walk which 
is sometimes necessary in order to set right the boundary 
lines of a town. In our time, upon every road leading out 
of Springfield, except where the boundary is a river, may be 
found a substantial stone, marking the division between the 
city and the next town; but in early times the lines were 
marked in a very rude way and on the occasion of one perambu- 
lation the book of the town records reads that "we first marked 
a little white oak by a pine stump, then next the bottom of 
the hill we marked a pine staddle and laid stones upon a rock 
and just over the brook we marked an ash staddle and then 
next a pine tree standing on the south side of the county 
road and laid a heap of stones on a fiat rock in the road." 

This custom, known as "beating the bounds," the settlers 
brought from the old country where perambulation from very 
ancient days had been attended with great ceremony. The 
lord of the manor, with a large banner borne before him, 
priests in white gowns and with crosses carried aloft and 
others with bells and banners, followed by many people, 
walked in procession around the bounds of the entire parish, 
singing and stopping to take refreshments and having a gala 
time generally. The procession kept to the exact bounds 
through fields and even directly through a dooryard, or 



THE SETTLEMENT 



45 



even a house, if it stood on the Hne. If a river formed the 
boundary, the procession walked along the shore, while some 
of the party stripped off their clothes and swam alongside, 
or, if the stream was navigable, some persons rowed along in 
boats. Sometimes boys were thrown into it at certain places. 
When a wall, or tree, or post was near the line, boys were 
swung against it and bumped. These were called "bumping 
places" and when the boys became old men their testimony, 
as to the location of the line, was considered especially valuable 
as to any point where they had been bumped. Perambulation 
of town boundaries is still the law in Massachusetts; but the 
towns were too large and the people too full of serious work 
for ceremony and the woods and swamps too numerous to 
make perambulation anything more than an occasional attempt 
to see that the bounds were all right. 

In the beginning of the previous chapter it was said that 
William Pynchon was the founder of Springfield and that 
he was good, and wise and kind. We must now return to him. 
While John and Mary Pynchon are growing up to manhood 
and womanhood, he has remained the chief man of the planta- 
tion. He was the richest man in it, in fact, the only man 
who had any considerable wealth. He 
had the most land and the most cattle. 
Of the cattle, Mrs. Pynchon took the 
immediate charge, and if she was like 
many farmers' wives of the early times, 
she had a good many cows to milk with 
her own hands and some of the churn- 
ing to do. Her husband, though a 
planter, was more prominently a mer- 
chant and had to spend much time in ^^^ 
fur trade with the Indians and seeing 




46 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

to the importation from Boston or Europe of things that the 
settlers needed and could not make. Besides, he owned 
the mills which ground the corn and sawed the logs on Mill 
river. 

And then, again, he was obhged to spend much time in the 
public service, because he was the man best fitted to do it, 
as everybody acknowledged. He was the judge before whom 
all the people brought their disputes for trial at law. He was 
a member of the General Court, which met at Boston and 
made laws for the whole colony. He was the commissioner 
of the colony to treat with the various Tribes of Indians 
between the Boston settlements and those on the Hudson 
River. 

It is a very important fact that the Indians, who, if they 
had been wrongfully treated might have caused much trouble, 
found in him one who would do exact justice between them 
and the whites. For fear of him as a judge, an Indian feared 
to wrong a white man and because of him and his just ways 
in trade they liked to deal with the white man. Pynchon 
feared no man; but he feared God and was a rnan of good will 
toward men. When the people met for town business it was 
he who was always chosen to preside. He lived in a wooden 
house on the spot which would now be the corner of Main and 
Fort streets and next north was the house of his trusted 
friend, Thomas Cooper. Posterity is fortunate in the existence 
of a portrait of him, painted from life. It is now in the Essex 
Institute, at Salem. He is the only citizen of Springfield, in 
its first century, the likeness of whose face is known. 

Like many good men who are called upon, by their high 
position, to do difficult things and sometimes to oppose the 
wishes of other people in doing them, there were those who 
did not understand and admire Wilham Pynchon. But they 



THE PYNCHON FAMILY 47 

did not live in Springfield. Some of them lived in Hartford. 
At a certain time, when grain was very scarce, it was necessary 
for the people of Hartford, Windsor and this plantation to 
buy corn of the Indians. Mr. Pynchon was given power, by 
all the towns of the valley below, to buy corn for them all at 
a certain price and if he could not buy it at the price, to offer 
more. The Indians held off and would not sell at a price that 
was reasonable. Mr. Pynchon did not buy; he thought it 
not best that the Indians should know of the weakness of the 
colonists; and he did not wish to disturb the market price 
for corn, feeling that this would be bad, not only for his own 
trade with them in the future, but for all the colonists. He 
believed in suffering some present loss, in order to keep a 
lasting gain. The people of Springfield believed with him, 
but those of Hartford did not. 

Both towns were suffering for lack of grain, and the cattle 
were getting poor, — Mr. Pynchon's, like those of everybody 
else. Still Pynchon stood firm. He felt that the white man 
must be firm and self-sufficient in presence of the savage; and 
there were Indians up and down the valley who had done 
much injury to the whites in the Pequot war and might, and 
in fact did, later, do more. Connecticut had conquered the 
Indians with the sword, but Pynchon believed in the arts of 
peace. He believed in suffering for the sake of peace; in 
getting people to do the things they ought to or the things 
that one wants them to do, of their own free will and not by 
force. Springfield was more exposed to dangers of the Indians 
and to the evil results of disturbing the regular course of trade 
with them than Hartford. 

So Springfield and Hartford differed about this matter and 
Hartford sent up Captain Mason, a famous Indian fighter, 
with money in one hand and sword in the other, as it were. 



48 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

He was ready to give a higher price for the corn or to fight the 
Indians if they would not sell. They felt obliged to yield. 
Mr. Pynchon suffered many hard words from Hartford and 
Windsor about the matter, but Massachusetts stood by him, 
as especially did his own town, and in his honor the name of 
the plantation was changed from Agawam to Springfield, 
which was the name of his old home in England. In the parish 
church of old Springfield may be seen an ancient tablet bear- 
ing his name as one of the church wardens. 

After this Mr. Pynchon again found himself in difficulties 
with the neighboring colony. That colony had a fort at the 
mouth of the river, kept for protection against the Indians 
and Dutch, and insisted that Pynchon's boats should pay 
toll when they passed it. The tolls were to go towards its 
maintenance. This Mr. Pynchon would have been willing to 
do if both Massachusetts and Connecticut could have had 
control of the fort; but he did not relish the idea of taxation 
without representation, an idea which all the colonies after- 
wards revolted and thus brought on the Revolution. So 
he refused to pay toll. Massachusetts stood by him and re- 
quired a toll on Connecticut ships sailing into Boston harbor. 
Then Connecticut gave way. 

But now came real trouble for William Pynchon; for even 
Massachusetts, except Springfield, turned against him. Wil- 
liam Pynchon was not only a man of wisdom and peace but 
of godliness. For this reason he thought and studied much 
on the goodness of God to his children and the duty that they 
owed to Him. He loved and studied the Bible and had his 
own thoughts about it. Here in his house on Main street he 
wrote a book which he had printed in London and which gave 
his thoughts on these things. It was called "The Meritorious 
Price of Our Redemption." 



THE PYNCHON FAMILY 



49 



Some copies of this book came to America and three copies 
are still in existence, one of them in the Congregational Li- 
brary, Boston. Because this book was, in some respects, con- 
trary to the opinions then held, it caused much excitement, 
particularly in Boston and the neighboring towns. The 
General Court condemned it. By order of this court the book 
was publicly burned in Boston and its author removed from his 
position of judge at Springfield. 







^!i^i'^!f)^VV,V-' 



BUKNINCi OF PVNCHON KoOK. 



AH these unhappy results of Mr. Pynchon's desire to set 
before the world what he believed to be the truth, were a 
serious blow to him. He had the best intentions and, perhaps, 
supposed that his efforts to do good would be met with a 
spirit of kindliness. On the other hand he found himself 



50 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

punished and in the way of continued persecution. For 
himself he might have endured this. Already there had been 
thorns as well as roses in his path. Founding a settlement 
in the wilderness and being mainly responsible for its safety 
and happiness had not been easy. Yet he was not a man 
who would sacrifice the public's interests for his own. He 
apparently thought that though the settlement would suffer 
somewhat if he left it, yet, under all the circumstances, the 
responsibility had better be thrown on younger men, after 
his own leadership had become so much interfered with as, 
perhaps, to be an embarrassment to his fellow townsmen. 
Looking back from the long future and in view of the after 
career of his eldest son, who was early thrown upon his own 
resources, it really does seem that William Pynchon chose, for 
Springfield, what was the wisest course, in deciding to return 
to England, which he did in the year 1652. With him went 
his friend and minister, Mr. Moxon, and his own daughter 
Sarah, with her husband, Henry Smith. Thus ended the public 
career of one of the truly great colonial leaders, to whose 
character and the character of those whom he naturally drew 
about him, much of the stability and purity of the public and 
private life of Springfield has always been, and let us hope, for 
a long time to come, will be due. When Springfield learns 
what she owes to him, his statue will be seen in one of her 
public places. 

It was a dark day for Springfield when William Pynchon, 
Mr. Moxon and Henry Smith set out to spend the rest of their 
lives in England. It was the loss of the leaders. Other and 
younger men must now be called upon and it remains to be 
seen how well they would fulfill their duties. As it turned 
out, there were good men and true to do what the lost leaders 
had done, namely, to work together for the good of the town. 



THE PYNCHON FAMILY 



51 



As we look back we see that of these men, the four most 
prominent were John Pynchon, Samuel Chapin, Elizur Hol- 
yoke and Thomas Cooper. Others there were who worked 
loyally with them. Deacon Chapin and Thomas Cooper we 
know already as selectmen. Who was Elizur Holyoke? In 
answering this last question we will take our last glimpse of 
Mary Pynchon. Hers is the first girl's name of any we know 
among the very first settlers and we could wish that more 

was known about her. When 
she came from England she was 
about the age of the girl in this 
picture. Soon after she had crossed 
the ocean to the New World her 
own mother died and it was after 
her father had married again that 
she came to Springfield. As she 
grew into girlhood so attractive 
was she, that when she was but 
fifteen years of age Elizur Hol- 
yoke of Hartford asked for her to 
be his wife. Her father giving his consent, young Holyoke 
removed to Springfield and they lived happily together for 
seventeen years until her death. 

In Holland's story "The Bay Path," there is much that 
is imaginary about Mary Pynchon, but aside from what is here 
told, scarcely anything more is known than is contained on 
the stone at her grave in the cemetery: 

"She that lies here was, while she stood, 
A very glory of womanhood." 

It was for either her husband or her son. Captain Holyoke, 
that the mountain was named. 




Upon a bank of violets sweet. 

Shakespeare. 



52 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



hli 



But the hopes of the town might well have been placed on 
John Pynchon, who had many of his father's qualities of 
character and some others that were equally useful. Though 
born in England, he was but a boy when, after the long ocean 
voyage, he first saw the New World, and he grew up truly an 
American. Perhaps he could not, like his father, read the 
Bible in the original Hebrew ; and he may have known nothing 
of Latin and Greek, all of 
which William Pynchon '^''i "'''■'' 

had learned at the Uni- 
versity of Oxford. It 
may be, too, that his 
father had taught him 
something of these things. 
There is good reason for 
supposing that he was 
studious as a boy and 
when he became a young 
man he was so much of a 
scholar that he was some- 
times expected to preach 
a sermon of his own writ- 
ing, in the years when 
the people met for wor- 
ship, without any min- 
ister. On other occa- 
sions. Deacon Chapin, or another, would read a printed ser- 
mon of some clergyman. 

But John Pynchon had other training which was, perhaps, 
more useful to Springfield. He had grown up alongside the 
Indian boys who lived on Long Hill and the Agawam side 
and well knew the Indian character. This, in the trying times 




THE PYNCHON FAMILY 53 

that afterwards arose with the Indians, was of much conse- 
quence. Sometimes he was called upon to settle differences 
between the Indians and other settlements, even as far west 
as Albany. ' The Indians called him "brother Pynchon." No 
likeness of him remains, as boy or man. In those days of 
hard struggle for a livelihood, probably none was ever made, 
but the picture on the previous page shows how he might have 
looked, in his earlier years, studious boy as he was. 

As the successor of his father, John Pynchon became the 
great merchant and trader of the valley. His vessels went 
down the river with merchandise to be landed at his own 
wharf in Boston. As an incident of his extensive operations 
with the Indians and others he furnished a good deal of work 
to the women and children of Springfield by giving them 
shells to string into wampum at a given price per fathom. 
These shells were either white or blue-black and were gathered 
by Indians on the shores of Long Island. Having been duly 
shaped they were sent to Springfield to Pynchon and sold to 
him by the bushel. On being strung they became wampum, 
the money of the Indians, and also to a large extent, of the 
settlers. Their value arose from the fact that they were so 
much used by the Indians for ornaments, just as the value 
of gold arises from the fact that, worthless as it is in the most 
useful arts, it is universally in demand for jewelry, and like 
the peculiar wampum shells, very scarce as compared with 
other metals. From a study of John Pynchon's account books, 
the historian, Judd, has stated that over 20,000 fathoms of 
wampum were strung by the women and children of this 
vicinity. As six feet make one fathom we have a string of 
beads which would reach from Court Square in Springfield 
through West Springfield to the Holyoke City Hall and back 
again through Chicopee. 



54 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 




Stocks. 



Besides being merchant and preacher, John Pynchon was 
also the recorder or register of deeds, the presiding officer in 
town meeting and the captain of the train band. He was 
also the judge before whom suits at law were tried and by 
whom law breakers were sentenced. There were some laws 
that he had to execute and some punishments that he had to 
inflict that seem strange to us. An 
ordinary punishment was standing 
in the stocks, an instrument of 
discomfort so put together that 
the feet, arms and neck of the cul- 
prit were pinned to a fixed position 
and his face exposed to public 
ridicule. The whipping post, even 
down to a late period, was a promi- 
nent object on the street and to it some of the wrong-doers 
were tied and whipped on the bare back. One of the rules of 
the army of Massachusetts was that, if any soldier should 
blaspheme, his tongue should be bored with a hot iron; but 
probably this punishment was not inflicted. Men were fined 
for wearing long hair and women were fined for wearing better 
clothes than they could afford. 

One of the most interesting trials that ever took place in 
Springfield occurred in the last years in which Judge William 
Pynchon held Court. It was the trial of Hugh Parsons for 
witchcraft. In England many thousand people had been 
hanged because they were thought to be witches in league with 
the evil one to injure others. In Springfield this suspicion fell 
on Hugh Parsons, whose house was at the south end of the 
street, near Mill river. 

Witches were always supposed to be ugly in appearance. 
Parsons was not a very agreeable man and probably not good 



WITCHCRAFT 55 

looking. He was a brick mason and used to wear a red coat. 
Having, for some reason, got provoked with Blanche Bedortha, 
he said to her, "Gammer, I shall remember you when you little 
think on it." Parsons probably forgot all about it, but not so 
Blanche Bedortha. She kept thinking of him and wondering 
if he was casting the evil eye upon her. Everything strange 




Witches. 



that happened she laid to Hugh Parsons aided by the devil. 
She looked out on the marsh, where Mill river entered the 
Connecticut and saw strange Hghts. No doubt it was innocent 
"Will-o-the-Wisp." One night, when she went to bed in the 
dark, some sparks came from her flannel waistcoat, such 
Httle sparks as electricity brings in cold weather. But she 
knew nothing of phosphorescence and electricity; neither did 
her neighbors; so they began to think that Hugh Parsons 
was really a witch. The belief spread up the street, encouraged 
by every trifling coincidence. Parsons called at Mr. Edwards' 
house for milk and soon after the cow dried up. George 
Lancton took a bag pudding out of the pot and, laying it on 







<'>*'s "«*/^- 



f^.C. 



-w-"^^!. 



i-^V.. 



<V- 



^ V5-- *-• -"a-...^<i..-<''^'''.. 






"Ah, Witch! Ah. Witch!' 



WITCHCRAFT 57 

the table, it separated right in the middle. Jonathan Taylor 
dreamed that he saw snakes on the floor and that one of them 
with a black and yellow stripe hit him on the forehead, when 
a voice like that of Parsons seemed to cry "Death." 

By this time the excitement was great and Parsons was 
arrested. As the constable was taking him past the house 
of Goody Stebbins (where is now the southeast corner of 
Court Square), on the way to Judge Pynchon's, she cried out, 
"Ah, witch! Ah, witch!" and fell in a fit. At the hearing 
before the Court it was decided that, on account of the im- 
portance of the case. Parsons must be sent to Boston where 
he would be tried on the charge of having "had familiar and 
wicked converse with the devil." His trial was accordingly 
held there and he was convicted by the jury, but he was 
finally acquitted by the General Court. Naturally he never 
returned to Springfield. In the picture the course of the 
town brook is seen and, in the distance, the wooded heights 
of the upper terrace from Crescent Hill to Fort Pleasant avenue. 

John Pynchon, the first judge, the fair recorder, the honest 
dealer, the able manager with the Indians, the godly teacher 
in a pulpit that had no minister, lived through all the events 
narrated in the next two chapters. In these he appears as the 
brave captain, major and colonel. "Major" was the title by 
which he came to be generally known. As he grew old such 
was the respect in which he was held and the gratitude that 
in the dark days when his father and mother had left the 
plantation, he had remained to be its protector, leader and 
friend, that he is described in the old records as "the worship- 
ful Major," "the worshipful Colonel" and as "the worshipful 
Major Pynchon, Esquire." His residence was in a house which 
stood on Main street, near the corner of the present Fort street, 
a house of brick, built by him and designed partly for defence 



58 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



in war, so that it came at 
last to be known as "the 
old fort." Attached to the 
rear of it was a part of the 
old wooden building in 
which his father lived. 

The old fort stood until 
1831, but nothing remains 
of these relics of the past, 
except a box made from 
the wood of the wooden 
house and a hinge from one 
of its doors. These are 
the property of the Con- 
necticut Valley Historical 
Society. Major Pynchon, 
honored and loved, lived to 
a good old age and died in 
1703. A good picture of his 
house is given on this page 
in the book plate of the 
Historical Society. The view 

behind the house as in old times takes in the river and the 
West Springfield meadows. Besides the Indian and the Puritan, 
the steeple of the First church is seen from another point of 
view, with Mount Tom in the distance. The plate was designed 
by Clare Gardner, once a pupil of the Springfield schools. 




CHAPTER IV. 

KING PHILIP'S WAR AND ITS CAUSES.— BATTLES AND 
BURNINGS IN THE CONNECTICUT VALLEY. 



UP TO the time at which we have now arrived there had 
been peace between the colonies of Massachusetts Bay 
and Plymouth on the one hand and the various Indian 
tribes on the other. In the Connecticut colony there had been 
a war so bitterly waged by the whites, aided by their allies, 
the Mohegan Indians, that it had resulted in the utter destruc- 
tion of the Pequot tribe. The 
Pequot war happened about 
the time of the settlement of 
Springfield and though it 
made the settlers in this part 
of the valley very cautious 
in dealing with the Indians, 
and taught them that they 
lived in the midst of danger, 
yet nothing hostile occurred. 
Massasoit, the famous chief 
of the Wampanoags, was a 
neighbor of the Plymouth 
colonists and had always been 
their friend. The Narragan- 
setts, who lived in Rhode 
Island, influenced by the good 
of Roger Williams for 
had kept the peace 
after the close of the Pequot war. 




King Philip. 
From ^'Indian History for Young Folks" by will 
Copyright 1884 by Harper 

them. 



Francis S. Drake 
and Bros. 



60 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

The tribes of the interior,- — those hving in what is now 
Worcester county and in that part of the valley extending 
from Hartford to Northampton,- — were known by the general 
name of Nipmucks or "fresh water" Indians. They were 
small tribes, apparently independent of each other, and having 
each a chief, or sachem, who was advised by a few others of 
the most knowing of the tribe called Sagamores. The Indians 
who lived at the mouth of the Agawam, and had their fort, 
where, perhaps, they spent the winter, on Long Hill, were 
called the Agawams. They were about two hundred in number 
and their sachem was Wequogan. 

It was only natural that when the whites of these colonies 
were so few in number they should make every effort to make 
friends with the Indians. Possessed as they were with fire- 
arms and the arts of civilization they were but weak, living 
in a wilderness among so many savages. Besides, they were 
taught by their religion that the Indian was a brother man 
to whom it was their duty to bring the blessings of the white 
man's religion. 

There were men like John Eliot and David Brainerd, who 
suffered great hardships and underwent much toil in order to 
get the Indians to accept Christianity. In fact they were 
reasonably successful, for in fifty years after the Pilgrims 
had landed on Plymouth rock, there were as many as two 
thousand "praying Indians." Some of these were sincerely 
religious but all were called "praying Indians" who had begun 
to desert savage life and attached themselves in friendship 
and service to the whites, showing a willingness to learn the 
civilized way of living. They afterwards showed their good 
will by taking English names. There was, for example, in 
the Plymouth colony an Indian named Toto, who went by 
the name of Sam Barrow, probably because of his friendly 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 61 

connection with a family of that name. Massasoit took his 
two boys, Wamsutta and Metacomet, to the governor, re- 
questing that they be given Enghsh names. They were 
therefore named respectively, Alexander and Philip. It was 
this Philip who figures so largely in this and the succeeding 
chapter. 

But, sad to relate, not all the whites were good to the 
Indians. Many bad men came to America and settled in the 
colonies. WiUiam Pynchon and his companions reahzed what 
might be the evil results of this in various ways and for many 
years no one was allowed to settle in Springfield who was not 
acceptable to the town. For a new settler someone had to 
become responsible that he would behave himself. In the 
seacoast towns this was not so easy. Consequently troubles 
arose and the whites sometimes bore themselves proudly 
towards the Indians. This, of course, irritated the Indians, 
for they felt that they had courteously allowed the whites to 
settle in their country and were entitled to respectful treat- 
ment. Here is an example of what happened. 

There was a sachem named Squando, chief of the Soko- 
nokis and a man of nobility and character. One day his wife 
was paddling down the river Saco in a canoe with her infant 
child. Some English sailors, coming along in a boat, said that 
they had heard that Indian children could swim like young 
ducks, and proceeded to upset the canoe. The child sank, 
at once, to the bottom of the river; the mother, by diving, 
brought it up, but although alive, it died shortly after. This, 
of course, was an extreme case, but it illustrates the wicked 
way in which the more ignorant or grosser members of a 
superior race sometimes look down upon and annoy those of 
a weaker race. 



62 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

There were also, on the part of the Indians, those things 
that annoyed the whites. The Indians were incHned to thiev- 
ing; neither did they feel the importance of telling the truth. 
A long training in civilized life had taught the whites that 
truth telling is not only right but that without it business 
cannot well go on. The mind of a savage does not understand 
this; so that, as was said by Mr. Moxon, the first minister 
of this town, "An Indian's promise is like taking a pig by the 
tail." 

But without regard to the right and the wrong in the 
character of the white man or the red man, there was another 
cause, perhaps enough in itself, to lead at some time to a 
union of Indians against the whites, provided any leader 
should appear great enough to unite them. The whites came 
more and more to possess the land. It is true that they bought 
it of the Indians and at a price that seemed fair to both parties ; 
but, all the same, the Indians saw their hunting grounds dis- 
appearing and the game growing more scarce. They were 
trained to hunt and not to dig; all the corn was raised by the 
women. Besides, if the praying Indians kept on increasing, 
the true glory, as they understood it, of the Indian character, 
would be gone. No more war; no more scalping; no more 
of that wild life which they so thoroughly enjoyed. Instead 
of Indian braves there would only be peaceable Indian farmers. 
Today there are, on the Indian reservations, farmers, pros- 
perous and happy, having pianos and sewing machines in 
their comfortable homes; but an Indian, of colonial days, 
if he could have foreseen this as possible, would not have had 
it so, simply because he was born a wild Indian in a wigwam. 
A tame fox may be petted and well fed, but a wild fox, half 
starved, as he generally is, would never choose to become a 
tame one. 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 63 

So, after fifty years had passed since the settlement of 
Plymouth, the Indians were reasoning among themselves in 
this way: "Now is our time. If we do not at once unite our 
scattered tribes and destroy the English, they will, in the end 
starve us out. They will soon grow so powerful that resist- 
ance would be hopeless. It is true that we cannot fight as 
they do. They have plenty of firearms and we must depend 
partly on our bows and arrows, but then we need not meet 
them in open battle. We can worry them out, we can shoot 
and poison their cattle, burn their houses and barns, and lie 
in wait for them in their fields and in the forest paths. When 
the men are away from home we can tomahawk the women 
and children. They may be more numerous than we are, but, 
in this way, we can in time destroy them all or drive them back 
whence they came." 

Some of the old sagamores gave different counsel, but this 
was the spirit that possessed the younger men of the tribes 
in Massachusetts. The disastrous Pequot war in Connecticut 
had taught the Mohegans that such reasonings were in vain 
and, under the leadership of the wily Uncas, they had been 
for a long time the allies of the English and were prepared 
to join with them even in war against their own race. 

To bring all this unfriendly feeling against the whites to 
a head, there was needed a warrior, who by his personal 
qualities, could unite under him the various tribes. Such a 
man was Metacomet, Massasoit's son, called Philip by the 
English. He had now become chief of the Wampanoags and 
was thoroughly convinced of the importance of making a 
stand against the whites. He is known in history as King 
Philip, and indeed, he had many kingly qualities. He was 
large in stature, of commanding appearance, agile and swift- 
footed as any Indian brave, and of superb muscular training. 



64 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

As a leader he was quick to see and to do; and what he did 
not think safe or wise for himself to do he knew how to set 
others on doing. 

After war was once begun he would appear, now in south- 
eastern Massachusetts, now in Rhode Island and all at once 
in the Connecticut valley, like an angel of death, unseen in his 
coming or going, but his presence always recognized by the 
sign of burning villages and slaughtered English. He was, 
like other Indians, treacherous; yet, toward those who had 
befriended him personally, he proved, in the war, to be kind 
and magnanimous. Before an attack on a certain town, he 
directed that two small children of an old friend, should be 
spared; and he would not let Scituate be destroyed because 
in that town lived a family of Leonards who had befriended 
him. 

Perhaps nothing could make Philip more impressive than 
he was by nature; nevertheless on state occasions, it was his 
habit to assume a certain splendor of decoration. One of his 
decorations was a belt about ten feet long which went over 
his shoulders and being brought forward, hung down before 
him, nearly to his feet. It was embroidered with black and 
white wampum in figures of beasts, birds and flowers. Still 
another belt embroidered was placed on the head and hung 
down behind, and a third, ornamented with the figure of a 
star, was worn on the breast. These belts were edged with 
the red fur of some animal. 

The war began in June, 1675, within Plymouth colony, 
not far from Mount Hope, Philip's residence. Several villages 
were laid waste and some soldiers killed; but on the whole, 
thanks to the vigilance of Captain Church, a skillful Indian 
fighter, Philip was not very successful; so that he and his 
warriors were fortunate in escaping to the region of the Con- 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 



65 



-s-^?^ 



necticut valley, where the settlements, being more separated, 
could be easier attacked. 

It was in early August that a horseman came riding in hot 
haste into the Main street of Springfield, announcing to the 
excited inhabitants that their neighbors of Brookfield, thirty 

miles away, were in great dis- 
tress. The horseman was 
Judah Trumbiill. He had 
left Springfield but a few 
hours before. Arriving at 
Brookfield he had found the 
village in flames and the vil- 
igers penned up in a single 
house, fighting 
#/«^^C-i^»fe4il«*:_'<bi:^^^.^*^Mi^fcS --^^^^ for their lives 

^^^ against a horde 
of savages who 
were besieging 
it. Concealing 

himself, Trumbull crept up near enough to take in the situa- 
tion, then rushed to Springfield, as fast as his horse could 
carry him. 

Lieutenant Cooper immediately raised a troop of horse- 
men and hurried to Brookfield. On arriving he found that 
help had just come from another source. The Brookfield 
people were saved; but sad was their story. They had all, 
eighty-three in number, including women and children, gath- 
ered in a fortified house. To this the Indians tried to set fire 
in the hope of killing the inmates as they rushed out. To 
this end hay and fagots were piled against the side of the 
house and fired; but the blaze was put out from within. 
Blazing arrows were then shot upon the roof; but holes were 




Judah Tbumbdll's Ride. 



66 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



cut in the roof and the fire put out. More water being wanted, 
a man who went to the well after it was shot. A woman, 
too, was killed by a bullet that entered through a loophole 
made for firing a musket from within. In a last effort to fire 
the house the Indians got a cart, lengthened the tongue or 
pole by splicing on other poles and, loading it with combus- 
tibles, set it on fire. Then they tried to push it against the 
house, but one wheel getting caught in a rut, the cart turned 
round and exposed those who pushed it to shots from the 




The Attack on Brookfield. 

house. A shower, just then coming up, extinguished the fire. 
Brookfield having been destroyed, it was naturally to be 
expected that Philip would now give his attention to the 
settlements up and down the valley. None knew whose turn 
would come next. Springfield was no longer the northern 
settlement. Above were Hadley and Northampton, Hatfield 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 67 

and Deerfield, and still further north, Northfield, the most 
exposed of all. The only settlement to the west, in the valley, 
was Westfield. Of all the forces in the valley Major Pynchon 
had command, and in each town of course there was a miUtary 
company. In his plans Major Pynchon showed more wisdom 
than the commissioners of the united colonies, who had gen- 
eral charge of the war. He proposed to disarm the peaceful 
Indians, like the Agawams, before they had a chance to do 
mischief. 

It was decided first to disarm the Nonotucks who lived 
near Northampton. For this purpose, two companies, under 
Captain Lathrop and Captain Beers, after relieving Brookfield, 
were marching thence northwards when they overtook the 
enemy near Mount Sugarloaf . The Indians suddenly stopped, 
plunged into a swamp, and poured a volley of bullets into 
the English. Into the swamp rushed the troops and, shelter- 
ing themselves behind trees, they and the savages fought for 
three hours. In this, the battle of Hopewell Swamp, a number 
were killed on both sides. 

Then followed an attack on Deerfield and next on North- 
field, under the command of Sagamore Sam and One-Eyed 
John. Some of the inhabitants of Northfield were killed and 
eventually the settlement was abandoned for the rest of the 
war. While Captain Beers and his company were marching 
to the relief of Northfield they fell into an ambush. An 
ambush was a favorite mode of warfare with Indians. They 
would carefully pick out some narrow passage, through which 
they believed their enemy would go, where, concealing them- 
selves behind rocks and trees, and waiting until the enemy 
were so far in the pass as to make retreat difficult, they would 
make a sudden and deadly onslaught. Captain Beers and his 
force were thus caught while they were crossing a brook. 



68 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



Thrown at first into confusion, they finally rallied and fought 
their way out of the ravine. Then on a slope of a hill, now 
known as Beers mountain, they made a last desperate resist- 
ance; but the Captain and most of his company were killed. 
A few days afterwards, when Major Treat came along, he saw 
the heads of the slain stuck on poles by the travelled path, 
the sign and threat of Indian vengeance. 

About the middle of September Captain Lathrop with his 

company were 

^sizs 3^^32Em:^3S£2s:?m!m from 

y^^ Deerfield to 
i| Hadlcy. In the 
|| neighborhood of 
f = Mount Sugar- 
ed 3 loaf they stop- 
•;.^; ped by a brook 
t^ to pick the wild 
f^ grapes that hung 
•f.f temptingly on 
/V the vines about 
'— ' them. It was 
an excellent 
place for an am- 
bush and the 
Indians well 
knew it. No sooner were the troops scattered and their 
arms laid aside than the very bushes seemed on fire from 
the guns of, perhaps, hundreds of Indians, Pocumtucks, 
Nonotucks, Nashaways, Squakheags, led by Sagamore Sam, 
One-Eyed John, Muttaiimp, and, quite likely, Philip himself. 
The slaughter was well nigh complete. Almost the only person 
who escaped had thrown himself into the bed of the brook 




This cut is from "The Little Reader's Assistant," by 
Noah Webster, author of the Dictionary. It shows the clever 
escape of an Indian ally of the whites who, being pursued 
by one of Iving Philip's men, hid behind a rock and, raising his 
headgear on the barrel of his gun, drew the fire of his enemy. 
To reload the gun, a flint lock, took so much time that the first 
Indian escaped. 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 69 

and pulled the bushes over him. Although stepped on by 
more than one Indian, he lay quiet until all was over. This 
conflict is known as the battle of Bloody Brook. A monument 
near by now marks the burial place of the slain. 




Cradle op the Pynchon Family, Now in the Old Day House. 



70 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



THE STATUE OF THE PURITAN IN MERRICK PARK. 

With sober foot unswerving, lip severe, 

And lid that droops to shield the inner sight ; 
Dark-browed, stem-willed, a shadow in the light 

Of alien times, and yet no alien here ; 

Revered and dreaded, loved, but yet with fear; 
He moves, the somber shade of that old night 
Whence grew our mom, the ghost of that grim might 

That nursed to strength the Nation's youth austere. 

Mark the grave thought that lines the hollow cheek. 

The hardy hand that guards the sacred book, 

The sinewy limb, and what the thin lips speak 

Of iron will to mould the era — look 

In reverence, and as ye mutely scan 

The heroic figure, see, rough-limned, a man ! 

— Whitmore, 1852. 




:''j>.< 'r- 



J ] 
















The Indian Stockade on Long Hill, as it Probably Appeared, Looking S. E. 

CHAPTER V. 

KING PHILIP'S WAR CONTINUED— THE BURNING OF 

SPRINGFIELD— CAPT. HOLYOKE AND THE FALLS 

FIGHT.— CLOSE OF THE WAR. 

THE war was by this time well begun throughout the two 
colonies. The upper settlements of the Connecticut 
seemed to be at the mercy of the savages. They were 
now gathering in the neighborhood of Hadley, which appar- 
ently was to be the next point of attack." It was to Hadley 
therefore that the English soldiers were sent. Major Pynchon 
believed that some troops should nevertheless be left in the 
other settlements for fear of a surprise ;^_but the commissioners 



72 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

of the colonies made the mistake of not taking his advice 
Tn another respect he was overruled. With his usual fore 
sight and knowledge of Indian character he had suggested 
that the Agawams should be deprived of their firearms and a 
permanent guard placed in their fort. They were as yet 
peaceable and, being few in number, it could have been 
easily done. But he was obliged to content himself with taking 
a few hostages, who were then sent by him to Hartford for 
safer keeping. 

The gathering of troops at Hadley of course required 
Major Pynchon's presence there as commander of the army 
in the valley, and in accordance with orders he felt obliged to 
take with him nearly all the able-bodied men. Scarcely any 
men were left in the town, except a few old men, like Deacon 
Chapin, who was then in his last sickness, and boys under 
eighteen. 

Springfield's defenceless condition and importance gave 
Philip his opportunity. Through spies he knew what was 
going on. The blow was not to fall on Hadley, after all. To 
join forces with the Agawams, in the Long Hill stockade, 
was easy. He had only to hurry his light-footed braves down 
the line of the desolate Wilbraham hills and no one would be 
the wiser until it was too late. The farm houses of the open 
country were few and scattered and the occupants had fled 
into the villages for protection. 

By what defences had Springfield been made ready for an 
Indian onslaught? Major Pynchon and his fellow townsmen 
had their own way in this respect and they were fairly prepared. 
The Pynchon house, by its construction, being of brick with 
walls two feet in thickness, was in itself a good defence. 
There were two other houses in the lower part of the street, 
which, although built of wood, were especially protected 




KING PHILIP'S WAR 73 

against assault. Into these the inhabitants could flee. The 
ordinary means of garrisoning houses was by palisades. 

A palisade was made in this way. Trees of convenient size 
were cut to such a length that when 
placed firmly in the ground they would 
rise above it to the length of ten or 
twelve feet. Having been roughly hewn 
to a post-like form, or, if the work was 
hurried, perhaps not hewn at all, they palisaded houses. 

were then set close together around the house to be protected. 
They were also fastened together by a rude rail, held, it may be, 
by nails or withes. Sometimes several houses, or as at North- 
ampton, a whole hamlet, were thus enclosed. Loopholes were 
made here and there through which those from within could 
fire at an approaching enemy without much danger that a 
bullet or arrow would enter the loophole itself. At the entrance 
of the stockade or pahsaded place, one line of posts was made 
to overlap the line from the other direction at a distance just 
wide enough for a man to pass. The narrow passage could 
thus be easily defended. Of course, if the enemy could get 
upon a rock or tree in the near neighborhood, they could fire 
upon the house, so that occasionally some one was shot when 
opposite a window. Feather beds, as was the case in Brook- 
field, could be hung against the inside wall to deaden the 
bullets that might penetrate the wall itself. It was with 
palisades that the Long Hill fort was constructed and the 
settlers wisely adopted the Indian mode of defence. The 
Indian fort or stockade was situated on the spot where now 
stands the house of the Vincentian Fathers. When exca- 
vations for this building were made the ashes of the 
ancient fires were uncovered and discolorations of the soil 
showed where the posts had been. 



74 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

It was into this fort on Long Hill that some of Philip's 
warriors secretly entered on a night in early October, 1675. 
There were among our local Indians only about forty fighting 
men. They were probably so peaceably disposed, by reason 
of their weakness, their familiar intercourse in the village, and 
the fair treatment which they had always had, that had it 
not been for the incitements of Philip, they might have taken 
no part in the war. They were nearer to Connecticut than 
the Indians of the upper valley and in the Pequot war the 
Connecticut Indians had been taught a severe lesson. But to 
destroy Springfield was part of Philip's plan; he needed the 
help of our Indians and his clever arts prevailed. 

On Monday, October 4th, Major Pynchon set out for 
Hadley with his men. His object was to locate the Indians 
harboring around there and bring on a decisive battle at once. 
Meantime, Indian braves who had fired Brookfield and other 
places, were secretly got into the Long Hill fort. The terrible 
disaster and slaughter of women and children that impended 
was only saved from making a bloody page of history by a 
single circumstance. The Agawam hostages were still in 
Hartford and their relatives probably insisted on their relief 
from certain death by getting them out of the hands of the 
whites before the expected attack. Had this not been done 
some Indian would have betrayed the whole plot. Accordingly 
some messengers were sent to Hartford, who in some way 
effected the escape of the hostages. In passing through Wind- 
sor, either going or coming, the messengers or the hostages 
happened to come across Toto, an Indian who lived in a 
white family. Toto became aware of the plot and as he 
showed great excitement about something, he revealed it, 
on being questioned. 

No time was to be lost. The fate of Springfield now hung 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 75 

on a family in Windsor, whose name we would be glad to know. 
A swift messenger was dispatched to the doomed town. Leav- 
ing his horse, probably, in West Springfield, and rousing the 
citizens there, he crossed on the ferry, with some of them, 
at dead of night. The alarm was given all down the street. 
The people fled at once to the fortified houses and a messenger 
was sent to Hadley after Major Pynchon. 

It is probable that the Indians intended to make the attack 
at night. The betrayal of their plot and the sudden rush of 
the people for safety may have disconcerted their plans. At 
all events the morning broke with no sign of danger and some 
of the people went back to their homes. It was hard for them 
to believe that the Agawams had become their enemies. 

At this time the town was in command of Thomas Cooper, 
then known as Lieutenant Cooper. He no longer lived in his 
old place on Main street, but fifteen years before had removed 
to that part of the town now known as Agawam, and had a 
sawmill on Three Mile brook. He was an old man, but yet 
hale and hearty. He was not only a carpenter and farmer; 
he was something of a surgeon and in the absence of regular 
physicians, went far and near to set a broken bone. This he 
did in kindness and with no charge. In the absence of lawyers 
he also practiced before the courts. He was so often called 
to serve as selectman that he sought to avoid the office. He 
was particularly successful in dealing with the Indians and 
was probably personally acquainted with each one. Green, 
in his history, says that his descendants, of whom some still 
remain, may well place him beside Deacon Chapin as one 
of the pillars of the town. 

Another man besides Cooper, Chapin and the minister, 
who remained when the militia went to Hadley, was Thomas 
Miller. He was the constable and perhaps for that reason 



76 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

was left behind. Unlike Lieutenant Cooper, he was probably 
not on particularly good terms with the Indians. In his 
younger days he had, for some reason, struck old Reippum- 
sick with the butt of his gun and the old man brought the 
younger one before Judge William Pynchon. As the matter 
was liable to lead to difficulties with the Indians, the judge 
called in several men, including the minister and Thomas 
Cooper, to sit with him as advisers. The result was that Miller 
was sentenced to be whipped at the public whipping post 
fifteen lashes, which, rather than undergo, he finally made 
his peace with the Indians by the payment of four fathoms of 
wampum. Perhaps unpleasant feelings remained on both 
sides, for ten years afterwards Miller complained to the court of 
Kollabaugamitt, Mallamaug and other Indians for striking his 
wife and throwing sticks at his children; whereupon ten men 
riding hard on five horses were sent in pursuit of the fleeing 
Kollabaugamitt, Mallamaug and other assailants into the 
country of the Nipmucks. Kollabaugamitt and Mallamaug 
were caught and fined by the Court in fourteen fathoms of 
wampum. Although the Indians did not like Thomas Miller 
yet, as he was constable and had been fence viewer, pound- 
keeper and committee on the allotment of new lands, he was 
evidently reckoned a worthy citizen. 

It is true that with the coming of the morning of the event- 
ful day the people had returned to their homes. Most of 
them, of course, were women and children and the distress 
and anxiety must have been great. The defenders of the 
town had gone, and, although sent for, they might be unable 
to return. There may have been reports of strange Indians 
seen about the fort, and with another night death and destruc- 
tion might be upon the village. At some hazard Lieutenant 
Cooper determined to resolve these doubts. Taking Thomas 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 



77 



Miller with him, both mounted, they rode down the street in 
the direction of the fort. Arrived at some point not far from 
the bridge at Mill river, north of the stream and where the 
road passes alongside the natural bank at the foot of Long 
Hill, a shot was heard and then another. Miller was in- 
stantly killed. Cooper fell from his horse, but remounting, 
started up the street. Another shot made a mortal wound. 




The Ambush of Lieutenant Cooper and Constable Miller. 



He reached the nearest garrisoned house and gave the alarm, 
but immediately died. 

Much as Thomas Cooper had done for the town in his life, 
in his death he really saved it from a great slaughter, for the 
alarm was none too soon. The people had no sooner got into 



78 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

the fortified houses than the Indians, whooping and yelHng, 
broke from the fort and were upon the town, 

"Alas, that direful yell 
So loud, so wild, so shrill, so clear. 
As if the very fiends of hell, 
Burst from the wild wood depths, were here." 

As compared with an Indian warhoop, the howling of a wolf 
or the cry of a panther had no terrors to the forefathers. At 
the head of the savage band were Philip's chosen braves, 
closely followed by the more timid Agawams, armed with fire- 
arms and bows and arrows. Some carried blazing pine knots, 
prepared to burn the houses, barns and haystacks. Thanks 
to the Windsor Indian, Lieutenant Cooper and the palisades, 
no one was killed in the mad rush up the street except Pente- 
cost Matthews, wife of the old town drummer, and Edmund 
Pringrydays, who was wounded and died a few days after. 
Some thirty houses were burned as were about twenty-five 
barns stored with fodder for the winter. Crossing the marsh, 
the enemy burned the house of correction near the present 
corner of State and Maple streets. In a short time the whole 
town, from the mills on Mill river to upper Ferry lane (Cypress 
street) was a burning, smoking ruin. Nothing escaped but 
the garrisoned houses, the meeting-house and one or two 
houses near it. Before being fired the houses were plundered 
of their valuables. One Indian got a pewter platter, which 
holding up before his person, either in defence or defiance, an 
enraged townsman sent a bullet through both platter and 
Indian. The platter remained in the town for nearly two 
centuries. 

While the Indians were still in the village plundering and 
burning and looking for an opportunity to kill the besieged, 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 79 

Major Treat of Connecticut arrived on the West Springfield 
side of the river with a company of soldiers. Could they have 
got across, the Indians would have fled, but the latter kept 
them back. Major Pynchon, however, having got the message 
sent the night before, had set out in great haste with the Spring- 
field men, whose wives and children, mothers and sisters, 
were in the "sacked and burning village." Perspiring with 
exertion and anxiety, they at last arrived on the scene. Their 
approach was the signal for the retreat of the Indians. These 
hurried eastward across the plain and encamped for the night 
about six miles away, tradition says at Indian Orchard. The 
next day they plunged into the forest to the north. The 
Agawams, afterwards uniting themselves with other tribes to 
the west of the Hudson, became, as a separate tribe, forever 
lost to sight. Although now and then a wanderer appeared 
about the home of his childhood, never again did Springfield 
have a tribe of Indian neighbors. 

One old squaw was left in the hasty flight. Perhaps she 
tried to follow the tribe and fell behind because of her age. 
Captain Moseley of Boston, who was engaged in the army of 
the valley, but not in Springfield, declared that she was torn 
in pieces by dogs. If true, this heinous act requires explana- 
tion and apology. Perhaps only a few were responsible. The 
shocking barbarities of the Indians were beginning to arouse 
the colonists to a fearful revenge. Captive Indians, including 
Philip's wife and little son, were sold into slavery in the West 
Indies, and even in Plymouth the heads of slain Indians were 
exposed on poles. There is nothing, however, on the part of 
the whites as barbarous as an act of the Indians in roasting a 
captive and eating slices of his flesh while yet alive. 

The saintly Eliot, who had been a successful missionary 
to the Indians, tried, with others, to lessen the brutalities of 



80 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



war, so far as the whites were concerned, but without success. 
The Indians, however, had not so much feeHng about this 
matter, even as concerned their own people, as one might 
expect. They looked upon death with a sort of indifference 
and probably felt that scalping and being scalped, burning 
alive and being burnt alive were a part of the glory of war. 
When Toto, mentioned in the fourth chapter (page 60), having 
himself killed nineteen whites, at last fell into the hands of 




Indians Killing a White Captive. 
From Noah Webster's "Little Reader's Assistant." 



Captain Church, he was told to prepare to die. He admitted 
that the sentence was just and said he was ashamed to live. 
He asked only the favor of being allowed to smoke a few whiffs 
of tobacco, which having done, he said he was ready. Then 
one of Captain Church's Indians sank a hatchet in his brains. 
At last winter began to set in, a time when even the Indians 
could not accomplish much in the way of active warfare. 
Philip and his Wampanoags retired from this region and 
entrenched themselves in a swamp in the eastern part of the 



KING PHILIPS WAR 81 

State, where they were attacked with great slaughter. But it 
was a sad state of things here in the valley, with Deerfield, 
Northfield and Springfield destroyed and only Hadley and 
Northampton remaining. Springfield was in great straits. 
The people huddled together in the few houses and barns that 
were left and some probably found shelter on the west side 
where there were some houses. Major Pynchon was much 
inconvenienced by the crowding of his own house and dis- 
tressed by his great loss of property, — his grist mills and saw 
mills destroyed and the people who owed him unable to pay. 
It seemed like the ruin of his fortune, yet this is the way he 
wrote to one of hig children, then in London: 

"Dear Son: I would not have you troubled at these sad 
losses which I have met with. There is no reason for a child 
to be troubled when his father calls in that which he lent him. 
It was the Lord that lent it to me, and He that gave it hath 
taken it away, and blessed be the name of the Lord. He hath 
done very well for me, and I acknowledge His goodness, and 
desire to trust in Him and to submit to Him forever. And do 
you, with me, acknowledge and justify Him." 

There was some talk of abandoning Springfield. Major 
Pynchon himself thought he would be better off to remove 
to Boston, where he had some property left. But, strong in 
the sense of duty, which was a family trait, he wrote to Gov- 
ernor Leverett in language of 

manliness and fortitude: //./ CI) / 

"I resolve to attend what ^^-iy^hm. J^ncn^^ 
God calls me to do and to C_— -^ ^^^^--^^"^"^ i 

stick to it as long as I can, - r 

^ , 1 T 1 1 Autograph of John Pynchon. 

and, though 1 have such great 

loss of the creature comforts, yet to do what I can in defending 

this place." Thus he furnished a good motto for all the sons and 



82 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

daughters of Springfield in times of stress and difficulty: 
''STICK TO IT!'' 

At last the dreadful winter passed into an early spring, 
so that the crops were got early into the ground. The hopes 
of the people began to revive. They had not much more to 
lose and if the war might only be successfully ended in the 
campaign of the advancing year, all might yet be well. But 
the Indians had been greatly encouraged by the successes of 
1675, and their dreams of sweeping the white men out of New 
England seemed nearer to becoming true. They started early 
on the war path. 

On a day in March a small party of Longmeadow people, 
who, out of fear, had been deprived of all church services 
since the memorable fifth of October, were on their way to 
the meeting-house at the center. They were protected by a 
few mounted soldiers, men from the eastern part of the state, 
who had been garrisoned in Springfield since the disaster. The 
company had got as far as the brook at Pecowsic, just where 
it comes out from Forest Park, when they were set upon by 
Indians. John Keep of Longmeadow was killed, his wife 
captured and his children either killed or captured. The 
Indians escaped into the region of the park and made for the 
north. As soon as Major Pynchon was notified he set off with 
others in pursuit, and overtaking the band, rescued a woman. 
It was learned from her that some, at least, of the attacking 
party were our own Agawams. 

Still bolder moves than this were made. Connecticut, 
after the Pequot war, seemed to be reasonably safe, but now 
an invasion into that colony was made; and Simsbury, only 
a few miles from Hartford, was attacked. Town after town 
in the eastern part of the colony was attacked or destroyed 
and the colonists were almost in despair. It seemed as if 



KING PHILIPS WAR 83 

savagery were indeed winning the day against civilization; as 
if a great continent were to have no better use than as a hunt- 
ing ground for wild Indians. 

But when it seemed darkest, it was really just before a 
decisive blow that shattered the Indians' hopes in a day. 
To show how this came about it is necessary to go back a 
little. Early in March the Indians, in one of their marauding 
expeditions down the valley, had captured a Springfield boy, 




Mrs. Rowlandson and John Gilbert at Turners Falls. 

John Gilbert by name, whose father had lived in Longmeadow, 
but was now dead. John, who perhaps had wandered too far 
east of the village in order to snare partridges or something 
of that sort, was taken as far north as the present town of 
Hinsdale in New Hampshire. Here he fell very sick and 
was finally cast out into the cold along with a little Indian 
child who had lost both of its parents and was thrown out to 
die. They were found by Mrs. Rowlandson, the captive wife 



84 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

of a minister. With great difficulty she got the youth to a 
fire and he grew better. He watched his chance to escape 
and on his eighteenth birthday he succeeded. On reaching 
the settlements he was able to give very important information. 
It had not been known where the Indians of Western Massa- 
chusetts were located, whether they had gone over into the 
Hudson valley or had remained nearer at hand. Could their 
rendezvous be discovered, and the whole body be surprised by 
a sudden onslaught their power for evil might be broken. 

When John Gilbert reached the settlements he made it 
clear just where the Indians could be found. It was at some 
falls on the Connecticut river, near the entrance of a river, 
now called Miller's river. It was a good place for fishing and 
here the Indians, by drying fish, were making themselves 
ready for the summer campaign. 

As soon as this information became known to Captain 
Turner, after whom the falls were eventually named, he de- 
cided to attack at once. He was now in command in the 
valley, Major Pynchon having been allowed to resign at his 
own request. Pynchon, though a wise counsellor in the war, 
did not consider himself especially fitted for active military 
operations. Although he did not go to Turners Falls, Spring- 
field was well represented there by Captain Samuel Holyoke, 
the son of Mary Pynchon, a young man of brave and ardent 
temperament. He was second in command. The Indians 
were encamped directly on the bank of the river. With a 
sudden and terrible onslaught Captain Turner was among 
them without warning. Those who were not slain in their 
wigwams, plunged madly into the river and were carried down 
the falls to certain death. Such was the pitch of despera- 
tion to which the English had come in their fight against 
extinction by the savage, that Captain Holyoke slew five old 



KING PHILIP'S WAR 85 

men, women and children with his own hand, as they were 
hiding under a bank. This is horrible to relate, like as it is 
to the stories of an older time; but when the life of a people 
is at stake means are not nicely measured. At best, war is 
terrible. 

The noise of the attack had aroused another band of 
Indians who were not far off and they at once attacked the 
invaders. It was said that Philip was approaching with a 
thousand warriors. The victory of the English was now 
turned into a retreat, and, owing to certain circumstances, a 
retreat which it was very difficult successfully to manage. 
To make it worse. Captain Turner was shot and the command 
devolved on Holyoke. Already he had nearly lost his life 
with the vanguard. His horse had been shot under him. As 
several warriors rushed upon him he killed one and his men 
drove back the rest. It was, nevertheless, his self-possession 
and courage that saved the day, and he marched into Hadley 
the surviving victor of the famous "Falls Fight." 

But the strain of those hours was too much. He returned to 
Springfield and in a few short months died from the effects 
of the exertion, a sacrifice to the cause of civilization in the 
Connecticut valley, and, indeed, the whole state. It is, per- 
haps for him, more likely for his father, Elizur Holyoke, that 
the mountain is named which looks down on the scenes of 
his life and victory. 

The Falls Fight, notwithstanding the rout of the English 
at the end of it, was really a great disaster for the Indians. 
It broke up the fisheries, on which Philip depended for his 
supplies during the summer campaign. Many sachems, saga- 
mores and braves were killed, and Philip, almost in despair, 
left the valley of the great river for his own country. As it 
turned out, the Falls Fight, in which John Gilbert and Captain 



86 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

Holyoke of Springfield had borne so important a part, was the 
last great event of the war, except the death of Philip himself. 
The Indian cause seemed all at once to collapse. Bereft of 
his family, his supporters killed in the Swamp Fight of the 
preceding winter and the Falls Fight of May 18th, Philip 
himself was at last corralled by Captain Church in a swamp. 
Swamps were a favorite place of refuge with Indians. As 
Philip was jumping from hummock to hummock in his flight, 
he was shot by an Indian, an ally of the English. Thus ended 
King Philip's war, so far as he was concerned, in August 1676. 
It was continued for a time by sachems on the Maine and New 
Hampshire coast, and then peace was arranged. 

Henceforth the Indians of New England were a doomed 
race; doomed to weakness, disease, intemperance and decay. 
It had been the glory of Massasoit to win by kindness the friend- 
ship and good will of a new continental power. It was the fate 
of his son to destroy that good will and make his people, as a 
race in New England, first, to be feared and then to be ignored 
and forgotten. Two centuries were to pass before savage 
warfare was to cease beyond the Hudson and on the slopes of 
of the Rockies, and the last Indian warrior engaged in con- 
flict with the American People, Geronimo, of the dreadful 
tribe of Apaches, has died the week that this work goes to press ;* 
but for New England its Indians were soon to be as if they 
had never been. 

"Alas for them! — their day is o'er, 

Their fires are out from hill and shore ; 

No more for them the wild deer bounds ; 

The plough is on their hunting-grounds ; 

The pale man's axe rings through their woods; 

The pale man's sail skims o'er their floods; 
Their pleasant springs are dry; 

Their children, — look! by power oppressed, 

Beyond the mountains of the west 

Their children go — to diel"— Sprague. 

*"Edition of 191 1" 



CHAPTER VI. 

SETTLEMENT OF CHICOPEE AND OTHER TOWNS.- 
THE REVOLUTION. 




Chicopee Falls in 1S3S. 



SPRINGFIELD had as yet but a very small population; 
all told there could not have been more than a few 
hundred people. But the Springfield of that time, the 
time of King Philip's war, and for many years afterwards, 
occupies a large place on the map. The Indians having gone, 
there were none to dispute the English ownership, except the 
settlements made independent of Springfi'eld and there were 
none of these in Massachusetts, except Westfield, nearer than 
Hadley and Northampton. Enfield and Suffield had once been 
practically a part of Springfield but it was finally decided that 



88 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

they lay beyond the Massachusetts line. Although some went 
from Springfield to help settle Westfield, this town wanted 
Westfield to be independent. Some went over the river to 
establish their homes even before the war, like Lieutenant 
Cooper. 

Notwithstanding this scattering and the fact that the cen- 
tral village might be weakened by it, there was a friendly 
feeling all around and the dwellers on the west side are spoken 
of in old records as "our neighbors." Longmeadow was 
early granted a separate school and although there was a 
locality named Longmeadow Gate, it did not divide the in- 
habitants except in the matter of place. John Riley went as 
far away as the southern part of the present Holyoke and 
may be considered as the first settler of that city. Riley's 
brook perpetuates his name. In fact, when we consider the 
territory included and the settlers who branched out in one 
direction or another, for the sake of getting good, large farms 
all to themselves, yet were really inhabitants of Springfield 
and voted in its town meeting, we would find old Springfield 
to embrace the present towns or cities of Holyoke, West 
Springfield, Agawam, Chicopee, Ludlow, Wilbraham, Hamp- 
den, Longmeadow and East Longmeadow. The early settle- 
ment of Longmeadow was of the great meadow itself, down 
by the river, Chicopee was settled largely by Chapins and 
there were so many boys in the Chapin families that the name 
is unusually common hereabouts. So for many years was 
the name of Bliss; and no wonder, for Luke Bliss had sixteen 
children and Jedediah Bliss had as many and one over. For 
the sake of the good land and the river travel, the early settlers 
kept pretty near the water, but in 1721 Nathaniel Hitchcock 
decided to go to ''the mountains," as they were called, and 
built for himself and his wife a house within the present limits 



NEIGHBORING TOWNS 89 

of Wilbraham. Others soon followed him. These Manchonis 
mountains were the Indian hunting grounds. 

When the settlement of Wilbraham commenced there was 
one squaw remaining nearly half a century after her tribe had 
been gone. Her wigwam was on a little brook near the hill 
since called "Wigwam Hill." "Alone," says Stebbins in his 
history of Wilbraham, "the last of that mysterious race, 
who had chased the deer over these fields, trapped the beaver 
in these streams, speared the salmon in these rivers, enjoyed 
the freedom of these hills, kindled their evening fires by these 
springs, and, as they smoked their pipes, beheld the western 
sky lighting up, as the sun went down, as if with the smile of 
the Great Spirit and of the braves, who had fallen in battle, 
and buried their kindred under these trees, she lived solitary, 
the curiosity of the early settlers, harmless, quiet, meditative, 
seldom entering any dwelling and providing for her own 
wants. At last she disappeared; of the manner of her death, 
or of her burial place, no man knoweth. She passed away, 
as a shadow of the vanished race and joined the company of 
her fathers." In 1750 Captain Miller went out and settled 
Ludlow. It thus happened that there were, before the Revo- 
lution, dwellers within the limits of all the cities and towns 
which have been made out of the old Springfield. 

When different localities came to be settled or used it is 
interesting to see what old Indian names they kept and what 
new ones they got. Take, for example, the Mill river valley. 
The land where the lesser river joins the greater one was known 
to the Indians as Usquaiok, which was, perhaps, the name 
of the stream. Mill river meant more to the settlers than 
Usquaiok, yet, just across the Connecticut they kept for the 
stream and the town, the word Agawam, the fish curing place 
of the Indians, where there were salmon and shad in plenty. 



90 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



Following up the Mill river valley, we pass the Water 
Shops, an odd name, indicating the use of water power. Fol- 
lowing the south branch we come to the neighborhood of 
Wachogue, formerly called Wachuet, an Indian word mean- 
ing "land near the hill." There were once "great Wachuet" 
and "little Wachuet," good meadow lands near hills on or 
near the Hampden road. Further on, along the stream, there 
was a good lot of land which measured about sixteen acres 




Chicopee from Springfield Street, 1838. 



in extent. This was allotted to early settlers and "The 
Sixteen Acres" grew into the name of a locality. Still further 
up was a tract called "World's End," because beyond this, 
for a time, nobody wanted to go. 

The dingles or old ravines which cut into the terraces of 
the thickly settled parts of the city all had their names. At 
the beginning of St. James avenue was, and is, Squaw tree 
dingle and, near the Chicopee line. Hogpen dingle. The 
dingle below the Wesson Hospital was Skunk's Misery and the 



NEIGHBORING TOWNS 91 

one beginning at Avon Place was Thompson's dingle. To 
the south are Long dingle in Forest Park, and Entry dingle, 
which last is in Longmeadow. These localities are shown 
on the map in the first chapter. 

Suppose, now, we follow up the Chicopee river for a time, 
beginning at its mouth, at the place which the Indians called 
Chicopee. Passing Crowfoot brook, named for an early 
settler on its banks, and through the center, we arrive at the 
ancient Schonunganuck, now Chicopee Falls. Not far beyond 
is Skipmaug or Skipmuck. Noticing the outlets, as we pass, 
of Skipmuck brook, Poor brook and Higher brook, and the 
curve at Bircham's Bend we come to Indian Orchard, a 
name of which the origin is lost; the original locality of 
that name was on the north side of the river within the present 
town of Ludlow. 

We will return by way of the old Bay road. Crossing 
Poor brook again and coming into State street, near Squaw, 
tree dingle, and where "the log path," now upper State street, 
formerly left the Bay road, and crossing the Connecticut, 
let us follow the course of the Agawam. We would pass 
through Ramapogue at the West Springfield common and, 
reaching the stream just beyond, pass under the high bluffs 
which were once the banks of the old lake. We cross the little 
"Silver stream" flowing out from the hill in Mittineague or 
Menedgonuck and, passing through the village and a mile or 
more beyond, we come to a great bend called "the neck." 
The Indians, however, called this place Ashconunsuck. Just 
above is Tatham or Tattum, the meaning of which nobody 
knows. Pursuing our way west we cross Block brook and, 
rounding the course of the stream where it runs between the 
ridges of trap, we arrive at the fertile interval known to the 
Indians, and still known, as Paucatuck. This hamlet is the 



92 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

last before we reach the Westfield hne. Paucatuck brook 
rises some miles to the north, beyond Bear Hole. Thus we 
see how English and Indian words of description are mingled 
in our names of places. 

Although, as we have seen, the Indians, as tribes, were 
'no longer left in this part of New England, yet they continued 
to wander back from time to time and were occasionally 
employed on the farms. The danger from Indians was not 
yet over, but it was now the red men of Canada who kept the 
settlements in alarm. They had never been heard of before 
in these parts, but about ten years after King Philip's w^ar 
ended and for more than half a century afterwards there were 
at times wars between England and France, which affected us. 
The French had settled Canada and, allying themselves with 
the Indians there, they made invasions of New England, 
particularly down the valley of the Connecticut. Northfield, 
Deerfield and Brookfield were most exposed. Men were killed 
and women carried captive to Canada. 

In Major Pynchon's day he was the military governor of 
the whole valley, and once when Brookfield had been attacked, 
he sent a force in pursuit of the Indians who were making fast 
for Canada. Among the pursuers was the same John 
Gilbert, who had once escaped from Indian captivity. The 
Indians were overtaken while at breakfast. Six of them were 
killed, and nine guns, twenty hatchets and about twenty 
horns of powder taken. It was just like John Pynchon, 
writing an account of the affair, to say, '"Tis God, not our 
twenty men that hath done it." Although the French were, 
from time to time, raising such dark war clouds to the north, 
yet in 1711, there arrived in Springfield a Frenchman who 
followed the ways of peace. He was a peddler, Samuel Malle- 
field by name, and appeared riding an iron gray horse. He 



NEIGHBORING TOWNS 



93 



brought more goods than one horse would carry, so, doubtless, 
the goods came by water from Hartford. There is in existence 
a list of all his wares, from which it appears that he brought 
something for everybody, — handkerchiefs, penknives and ink 
horns for the men, silks, fans and laces for the women and 
jewsharps and little books for the children. Among a multi- 
tude of other things were over 11,000 pins. All this we know 
because no sooner had the peddler arrived than he fell sick and 
died, and a complete inventory of his goods was made for the 
Probate Court. 

But the peddler, Samuel Mallefield, especially interests 
us, not so much because he came on an iron gray horse and 
brought 11,000 pins, but because on his deathbed he directed 
that all his property, after paying his expenses, should make 
a fund for the relief of the poor. The town accepted the 
bequest and erected a stone of table form to the memory of 
the French peddler, which may be seen among the ancient 
stones on the Pine street side of the 
cemetery. Very many years were to 
pass before his example would be fol- 
lowed; but in 1863 James W. Hale, 
a benevolent grocer, left most of his 
fortune to supply the worthy poor 
with coal, fuel and flour, from what 
is now called "The Hale Fund." 
These two men were the forerunners 
of many kind people who have made 
gifts and bequests for the use of the 
city. 

We are now come to the great days of the Revolution. 
Its battles were waged far away from Springfield; but, besides 
sending her men to join the armies of freedom, she had little 




James W. Hale. 



94 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



glimpses and side-lights of events as they passed and made 
history for the now United States. It was on a day in June 
of the year 1775 when one, standing on Main street, near the 
Court House, and looking up street, might have seen a caval- 
cade of horsemen approaching from the north. They had just 
crossed the river and had turned into the Main street from 



\ 



j^^&£-JjMj 




Parsons Tavern, Main and Elm Streets. 



the upper Ferry Lane, now Cypress street. They advance 
down the street and halt in front of the tavern at (the present) 
Court Square. The central figure is a tall and really fine- 
looking man of dignified yet pleasing countenance. It is the 
new General, George Washington, on his way to Cambridge 
to take command of the Continental army. With him is 
General Lee. "He was," says Irving, in his "Life of Wash- 



THE REVOLUTION 



95 




ington," "in the vigor of his days, forty-three years of age, 
stately in person, noble in demeanor, calm and dignified in 
his deportment. As he sat on his horse with manly grace, his 
military presence delighted every eye." After dinner at the 
tavern, the afternoon saw the party again on their way up 
State street and along the 
old Bay road. We may 
believe that General Wash- 
ington, who was an ob- 
servant traveler, drew rein 
for a moment at the Wait 
monument, then rather 
new, and read the inscrip- 
tion carved for the benefit 
of wayfarers. 

The battles of Lexing- 
ton and Bunker Hill had 
already been fought. The 
minute-men of Springfield 
were already stationed at 
the fortifications around 
Boston. Here is a letter, with misspelling corrected, which 
one of the young soldiers from Springfield wrote to his father. 
It was written about the day of Washington's arrival, written 
from the very town whence the settlers had started, as told 
in the second chapter. 

Roxbury, June 29, 1775. 
Honored Father: 

After my regards to you I take this opportunity to let you 
know that I am well, as I hope these lines will find you and all my 
brothers and sisters. I have some news to write. In the first place 
there was a skirmish between Charlestown and Cambridge and the 




Wait AIonl mhnt. 




96 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

King's troops drove our men out of our intrenchment because they 
had no powder and they have intrenched on Bunker's Hill and our 
men have intrenched on Winter Hill where the regulars retreated 

to when the first battle 
was at Concord which was 
June 16. They fired the 
same day at Roxbury and 
threw bombs and car- 
casses in order to set the 
street on fire, but by the 
goodness of God they 
did not, for our men, as 
soon as they had set 
it afire, would go up and 
put it out and the}^ fired 
no more until last Satur- 
day. Then they fired again and tried to set it on fire but they 
would go and put it out. One of our men took one of the car- 
casses and brought it up to the General before it went out. 
And they set two or three houses afire. But they were as fierce 
as a bloodhound to put them out. Then the Rhode Islanders 
went down on the Neck with two or three field pieces and 
fired at them and made their sentries run to the breast-work 
And then they fired upon our sentries and killed two of 
them. We are building a fort in Roxbury and digging a 
trench across the Neck. No more at present, so I remain your 
obedient son, 

JuDUTHAN Sanderson. 

It is plain that this young fellow was heart and soul with 
the cause of the Revolution. So were the citizens of Spring- 
field generally, prominent among them being William Pyn- 
chon, grandson of the "worshipful Major." There were those, 
however, who stood by the King. "Adamses, where are you 



THE REVOLUTION 



97 



going?" said Colonel Worthington to the great patriots, 
Samuel and John Adams, when they appeared in this town 




Discussing The Revolution. 



in 1776, on their way to the Continental Congress. "To 
Philadelphia, to declare these colonies free," was the quick 
response. "Look out for your heads," replied Worthington. 



98 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



The sound of battle was far away; but occasional travelers 
and soldiers returning from Ticonderoga and other posts kept 
the people fully interested and informed. It was this remote- 
ness of Springfield from the seat of war that, with other 
reasons, induced General Washington to designate the town 
as the place for the government manufacture of arms. He 
chose the plateau on which the Armory is now located, on 

the western edge of what he 
calls in his diary, describing the 
country between the Hill and 
Indian Orchard, "an almost un- 
inhabited pine plain much mixed 
with sand." The location cho- 
sen was then the town's training 
field, but it was readily yielded 
to the new enterprise. 

One of the great events in the 
early years of the Revolution, 
which is in a way connected with 
this and neighboring towns, was 
the surrender of the British 
General Burgoyne at Saratoga. 
Indeed, some of the soldiers of this vicinity were there and 
remembered the event as taking place on a clear and beautiful 
day in September. Standing in military array they saw the 
British general and six thousand of his troops pass by to the 
place where the latter laid down their arms. The soldiers of 
freedom were poor and wore no uniforms, but "they stood 
well arranged and with a military air." "The men," wrote 
the Hessian General Riedesel, then serving in the British 
army, "stood so still that we were filled with wonder. Not 
one of them made a single motion, as if he would speak with 




Costume of the Eighteenth Century. 



THE REVOLUTION 99 

his neighbor. Nay, more, the lads that stood there in rank 
and file, kind nature had formed so trim, so slender, so full of 
nerve that it was a pleasure to look at them and we were all 
surprised at the sight of such a handsome, well formed race. 
Not a man was to be found, who as we marched by, made 
even a sign of taunting, insulting, exultation, hatred or any 
other evil feeling. On the contrary they seemed as if they 
would do us an honor." 

General Riedesel commanded some German troops from 
Hesse-Cassel who had been hired by the king to serve in 
America. In fact the great mass of the English people had 
not much sympathy with George the Third in his attempt to 
crush the liberty of the colonies. They were not eager to join 
the army and go to America for this purpose, so that the king 
bargained with the Grand Duke of Hesse-Cassel for 22,000 
soldiers to fill up his army. It is not to be supposed that these 
mercenary troops had any heart in the war; but there was no 
German freedom in those days and they were compelled to go. 
Once here, both the English and German soldiers realized that 
the cause of liberty was the same everywhere and that what 
the Americans were fighting for was just what they themselves 
needed in their own country. It is not surprising that many 
of them deserted and made their homes in the United States. 

In the army that surrendered at Saratoga was a large 
body of Hessians, with their general. All these were ordered 
sent as prisoners of war to Boston. As there would not be 
enough to feed them if all went by the same route, three de- 
tachments were formed and one of these was sent over the 
mountains into and down the valley of the Westfield or Aga- 
wam river, by way of Springfield. It was at the close of 
a wet day in October when this large body of retired soldiers 
emerged from between the ridges of hills that divide Westfield 



100 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



from West Springfield and encamped on tlie West Springfield 
common. More comfortable quarters, however, were found 
by many at the farmsteads. 

In a large farmhouse in Paucatuck lived a little boy, Seth 
by name, whose father had but recently, gun on shoulder, 
come back from the scene of the surrender. He was intensely 
interested in stories of Ticonderoga and the doings about there 




Revolutionary Officers in a Farmhouse at Paucatuck, West Springfield. 



and one can imagine his excitement when a party of fifteen 
or sixteen officers from the two armies arrived at his father's 
house with the purpose of spending the night. The officers 
made themselves comfortable in the house and hung their 
swords and trappings above the blazing hearth-fire to dry. 
To the end of his life the boy remembered the glistening 



THE REVOLUTION 101 

steel and brass of the swords and scabbards as they flashed 
in the firehght. As for the common soldiers they staid out 
in the sheds at the cost of a good pile of cider apples that were 
waiting for the press. In the morning camp was struck on 
the Common, the farmhouses emptied of their visitors and 
the whole host crossed the river to Springfield, whence they 
proceeded towards Brookfield. 

But not all went. An Englishman named Worthy thought 
that this part of the country was good enough for him and 
contrived to drop out, as did a German named Wagoner. 
Worthy used to say that when the British common soldiers 
got over here they found that the Americans had the right of 
the cause. One other deserter there was, a horse, too lame, 
perhaps, to go further. He, too, found friends in West Spring- 
field and to the end of his days went by the name of "Old 
Burgoyne." 
















l^' 



Northeast Corner of Court Square, 1830. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SHAYS' REBELLION.— THE CONSTITUTION— 1783-1789. 

SHAYS' Rebellion was one of the unfortunate incidents 
in the history of Massachusetts. It is interesting because 
it shows a people, almost a majority, in opposition to 
the regular action of a government which they had just set 
up; and it is important in a history of Springfield because 
it was here that some of the most stirring scenes occurred. 
Sometimes it has been called an insurrection, sometimes a 
rebellion. An insurrection is a rising to prevent the operation 
of the laws by force of arms. A rebellion is such an opposition 
widely extended. In this case the movement, by spreading 
through the state, passed from an insurrection to a rebellion, 
although not a bloody one. It is included in the years 1783- 
1877. What was its cause? 

During the Revolution the colonies had been too poor to 
pay the soldiers properly, too poor indeed, properly to feed 
and uniform the men; men who had, perhaps, left wife and 
children at home to get a very poor living on the farm while 
the husband and father served the cause. Money often had 
to be borrowed for them to live on. But the soldiers were 
paid in paper money, good so long as it would pass for the 
value stamped on its face, but it would so pass only so long 
as it could be exchanged for that which had a value in itself, 
gold or silver. In the colonies there was not enough gold or 
silver to go around and be exchanged for all this paper money ; 
so it began to get worthless, and the more that it was printed 
and given out the more worthless it got. 



104 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



But the soldiers needed real money. When they got home 
to their farms they found, perhaps, that the oxen, which had 
not been needed for work during their absence, had been 
killed for beef. Now that the farmer himself was exchanging 
the gun for the plough, new oxen must be bought, or a new 
horse. Perhaps the farmer who had served in one or two 
campaigns was drafted for another and had to borrow money 
to pay for some one to go to the war in his place. The money 
was borrowed in coin and now the returning soldier found 
nothing in his hands with which to pay, except the now almost 

worthless paper. The former price 
of a yoke of oxen would scarce buy 
three mugs of cider; and if a man 
had borrowed a hundred dollars, he 
must now get four thousand dollars, 
in paper money to make it good. This 
farmer, pictured in an old broadside, 
''The Looking glass for 1787," has 
filled a bag with paper money and 
even then has scarcely enough to 
pay his taxes. 

When things came to this pass 
everybody was alarmed for the future. 
Business, of course, came very much 
to a standstill and it was hard to sell anything with which 
to pay anybody. People to whom debts were due began to 
collect them. If the debtor could not pay he was brought 
before the court and his farm or personal property was ordered 
to be sold to raise the money, and when nobody wanted to 
buy nothing would bring its real value. The debtor was 
ruined and under the old law of imprisonment for debt might 
have to go to jail. Thus it came to pass that a sense of distress, 




SHAYS' REBELLION 105 

suffering and alarm overspread Massachusetts and involved 
a considerable portion of the population. The large portion 
of the people who were not so greatly troubled might have 
done more to make things better. They might have passed 
certain laws which would have tided over the difficulties for 
a time till the cause was removed; but they were not wise 
enough to do so. 

The result was that here and there people began to consult 
together to see what they could do. All the danger was com- 
ing through the courts by the ordering of the collection of 
debts, so the malcontents decided to prevent the sitting of 
the courts. This was, of course, a high-handed proceeding. 
The courts had been established by the people of Massachu- 
setts for the purpose of doing justice between man and man 
and they tried hard to do so. The judges were not responsible 
for the laws but it was their duty to enforce them. The 
people had made the laws and it is pretty hard to justify the 
resistance of a free people to laws of their own making, even 
though some may unjustly suffer by it. In this case historians 
do not justify; they have done no more than to excuse on 
the ground of great provocation. 

Early in the history of the insurrection an important 
court was to be held in Springfield. The Court House stood 
on the east side of Main street, south of Sanford and, being 
just across the town brook, was reached by a small bridge. 
It was the sitting of the court here at this time that the insur- 
gents wished to prevent. Not wishing to proceed to blood- 
shed they left their guns of the Revolution at home and came 
armed with clubs. They gathered before the door of the 
Court House in so solid a mass that the judges as they arrived 
found their way obstructed. Before the judges walked the 
high sheriff, General Mattoon of Amherst. "Make way for 



106 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

the court," said the sheriff. Nobody moved. "Make way 
for the court, I say," he repeated; and struck David Smith, 
Jr., of West Springfield, a painful blow with the flat of his 
sword. It is said that one man was thrown into the brook. 
However that may be, the crowd then gave way and the court 
was duly held. 

There soon got to be a feeling among the towns, particularly 
towns in Hampshire, Berkshire and Worcester counties, that 
something was wrong that might be righted; so that from 
Springfield and elsewhere delegates were sent to a convention 
to talk about these matters and see what could be done. But 
nothing was effectively done and the opposition to the sitting 
of the courts kept growing. Sometimes it succeeded; but 
not so in Taunton, where Judge Cobb, a former general of 
the Revolution, was holding court. When the insurgents 
arrived, he urged them to yield to the laws, concluding with 
these words: "Sirs! I shall sit here as a judge or die here 
as a general." The mob dispersed. At last there appeared 
military leaders and the forms of military organization and 
there was no longer an insurrection but a rebellion. 

The rebellion took its name from one of these leaders, 
Daniel Shays of Pelham, a hill town not far from Ludlow. 
Shays had no great ability but he had served with credit as 
a captain in the Revolution, he was a good talker and, in 
concert with Luke Day of West Springfield, Eli Parsons of 
Berkshire and an ex-minister named Ely, was very successful 
in rallying the malcontents about him. Luke Day is reported 
to have said that liberty is liberty to do as you like and make 
everybody else do as you would have them. Perhaps, if he 
ever said it, he did not say it seriously; for true liberty is 
freedom subject to laws made for the good of all, as Day 



SHAYS' REBELLION 



107 



and every other soldier of the Revolution well knew. Day is 
thought to have been abler than Shays, but Shays was acknowl- 
edged as the leader and even in adjoining states where the 
same troubles prevailed "Hurrah for Shays!" became a 
popular cry. 

As between the cause of Shays and that of law the people 
of Springfield were 
divided. Springfield 
because of the Court 
House and the Ar- 
mory, became at 
once a great center of 
interest, as to which 
side should prevail, 
so that September 




Defending the Court House in Shays Rebellion. 

26, 1786, is memorable in our history. On that day the highest 
Court of the Commonwealth was to sit here, composed of the 
chief justice and three other judges and Shays meant to 
prevent it. His camp was near the corner of Main and Ferry 
streets. His men had no uniforms but could be told from the 
rest by a sprig of evergreen worn in the hat. The other side 
wore a piece of white paper in the same way. General Shep- 



108 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

ard of Westfield, a brave and magnanimous officer, was in the 
town with a force ready to protect the court. 

Then there were seen three thousand armed men marching 
up and down Main street, ready to fight each other on sufficient 
provocation. Almost all of them were from outside towns; 
but among the citizens themselves, neighbor was set against 
neighbor and the next moment men might be firing from one 
house to the next. The excitement was great, women and 
children trembling with fear; and we are not told whether 
school kept or not. Men were continually coming in from 
other towns and joining one camp or the other. More than 
one company of the state militia which arrived to support 
General Shepard, carried away by the "hurrah boys" of the 
other side, deserted in a body to Captain Shays. 

But there were staunch men left to the government side. 
Dr. Chauncey Brewer, going one night to see a sick person, 
had to pass through Shays' lines and was arrested by the 
sentries on Main street and brought into camp. Captain 
Shays ordered him to take the white paper from his hat. 
"No, Sir," said the doctor, "I shall not do it! Just give me 
a place to sleep." Twice he was ordered to doff the badge 
and twice refused. At last he was allowed to go home with 
his badge on. When the judges arrived they got safely to 
the Court House but as the grand jury did not dare to come 
nothing could be done. So the Shays party, having really 
accomplished its object, went home. 

By this time the governor was thoroughly aroused. More 
and more he saw steady government going to pieces before his 
eyes and felt that something must be done. Loyal troops 
must be got and the state had no money to pay for them. 
He had to borrow money of Boston citizens to raise an army. 
This he did and was able to place General Lincoln at the head 



SHAYS' REBELLION 109 

of 4,500 men. Of the troops raised here in the valley, General 
Shepard was in command. He at once proceeded to make 
himself strong at the Federal barracks, now called the Armory. 
None of the present buildings were there then; but there was 
a building containing arms and in the woods a powder maga- 
zine, of which Magazine street is still a reminder. 

Captain Day was, meanwhile, drilling his men on West 
Springfield Common and making occasional raids. He cap- 
tured General Parks and Doctor Whitney in their sleighs 
and making a dash into Longmeadow, pulled one man out of 
bed and took him to West Springfield. Eli Parsons with his, 
men of Berkshire was posted in Chicopee, so that, with Shays 
at Pelham, able quickly to descend upon the towns to the 
east, Springfield was in this way so surrounded that it was 
hoped to prevent General Shepard from being reinforced until 
Shays had captured the guns and ammunition at the arsenal, 
of which he was much in need. In fact, Day did capture, at 
Chicopee bridge, a supply of provisions sent to Shepard from 
Northampton, and Shepard began to be desperately afraid 
that he could not keep his force together until Lincoln's army 
should come up. 

By this time Lincoln's army was on the move to relieve 
Shepard and Shays saw that he must attack the arsenal at 
once or lose his cause. So he came off the heights of Pelham 
and appeared in Wilbraham with 1,100 men. The women 
and children of Wilbraham fled to Somers, but Shays kept 
on his way to Springfield. It was in the dead of winter and 
slow marching ; so that Shepard was warned of their approach 
by a swift horseman from Wilbraham. He arranged his forces 
in two divisions; one on Main street, to keep Day from 
crossing over on the ice to join Shays, and the rest he drew up 
before the arsenal and planted a howitzer in a good position 



110 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

with several cannon to the rear. Several times he sent his 
aids on horseback to meet Shays on the Sixteen Acres road 
and demand what he wanted. Shays' reply was that "he 
wanted barracks; barracks he would have and stores." He 
was told that he must purchase them dear if he had them. 

It was about four o'clock when Captain Shays with his 
more than a thousand men was seen moving down the present 
State street by Benton Park from off the Bay road. Reaching 
the vicinity of the present memorial boulder, they halted. 
General Shepard sent an aid to inform Shays that if he came 
nearer he would be fired upon, whereupon Shays started his 
men. Two shots were then fired by Shepard, not aimed directly 
at the rebels but only intended to frighten them. This having 
no effect, a howitzer full of grape shot was discharged into the 
center of their column. This caused a disturbance and the 
second or third shot put the whole army to rout. They turned 
and fled in confusion without firing a gun, leaving several 
of their comrades dead on the field. 

With such a ridiculous ending to the dreaded march of 
Shays, one cannot speak of the field of battle, and in all the 
rebellion there was nothing that came any nearer to a battle. 
Had Shays been more of a leader he would have done either 
less or much more. As it was, he proved very like that king 
of France, who, with 20,000 men marched up a hill and then 
marched down again. Henceforth there was no fear for the 
safety of the Armory until the days of the Civil war. 

If we may still use military language of such a fiasco, we 
would say that Shays, after the rout, fell back on Five Mile 
pond, where, making a stand, he next day joined Parsons in 
Chicopee with such of his men as had not deserted. General 
Lincoln meanwhile arrived on the scene, emerging from the 
Bay road and joining Shepard at the Armory. Being the 



SHAYS' REBELLION 



111 



superior officer, he was from this time in charge and proceeded 
at once to break up what was left of the rebelhon. A part of 
his force pursued Shays to Amherst whence he retreated to 
the fastnesses of Pelham where he, perhaps, thought that 
nothing but death and taxes could get him. He afterwards 
went for safety into the State of New York where he died in 
poverty. His life and exploits, real and imaginary, were made 
the subject of a ballad which became a popular song, even 
beyond the limits of Massachusetts. The entire ballad of 
nineteen verses may be found in the "Poets and Poetry of 
Springfield." The ancient music is here given. 



s— ^—s 



:H 



d==p: 



:Mi± 



Z 



■:t 



Jti\ 



^^=^ 



My name was Shays in for-mer days, In Pel-ham I did dwell, Sir, 



±Z=^. 



z^=:X 



^—w^—^—ii 



^=^»=?f=?= 



:t- 



^■ 



ipzzp: 



:r:=pz=t= 



=^=:1=^: 



— t: 



:=1=^= 



si- 



II 



But now I'm forced to leave that place, Be-cause I did re - bel. Sir. 



^^ 



=f==F= 



-■^- 



:p=P= 



-v=^^=t=t^ 



m 



General Lincoln ordered another part of his force to cross 
the river to encounter Day, who was still posted on West 
Springfield common ; while the light horse meanwhile went up 
the river on the ice to cut off any union of Day with Shays. 
Day's men precipitately fled to some point t)eneath the terrace 
of the ancient river bank, perhaps not far from the site of 
the old white church where they made a stand and prepared 
themselves to receive an attack. Another flight and they 



112 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



i-^ 




were on the heights where they were met by the light horse. 

Then began another rout. Some fled to Northampton and 

some fell out by the way. Among the latter was one Cooley 

^^i^fe,. who hid under a con- 

'IT^ '^-^r^^^ venient haystack and 

^ thereafter went by the 

*^ name of "the haystack 

Colonel." 

The backbone of 
the rebellion was now 
broken. General Lin- 
coln was kept busy 
for some months in the counties of Worcester, Berkshire and 
northern Hampshire in suppressing small outbreaks; but, 
finally, a general pardon was granted to those engaged in the 
rebellion who would take the oath of allegiance, which they 
all did, and "lived happily forever after." 

Shays' Rebellion, though local, had results affecting the 
whole country. The news of it reached Washington, in the 
quiet of his Mount Vernon home, and he was greatly stirred. 
That such a glorious peace as ended the Revolution should 
be succeeded by such disorder he thought a disgrace. It was 
not a resistance to tyrants but free men resisting a govern- 
ment which they had themselves set up, — a government of 
law replaced by anarchy. He seemed to see the great work 
of his life undone. It was partly for this reason that he began 
to give the great influence of his character and wisdom to the 
creation of a strong central government which might help 
the states to maintain order. He again became the leader 
of the people, and, in part, out of such apparently unfruitful 
soil as Shays' Rebellion grew the final union of the states and 
the adoption of the Constitution, 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OLD TIMES AND NEW.— THE CHANGE TO MODERN WAYS — 

THE FIRST STEAMBOAT.— THE ARMORY.— 

DISTINGUISHED VISITORS.— 

1789-185!2. 

ELL me about old 
fashioned times," a 
small boy used to say 
to his mother, mean- 
ing the times when 
she was a girl. What 
really are the "old- 
fashioned times?" 
What is the old world 
and what the new? 
We use these words in different senses. We say that modern 
times began with the invention of printing and the discovery 
of America and, again, we say that ancient history is the his- 
tory of the world before Christ, which we call B. C. But when 
we are thinking of old and new in Springfield we might prop- 
erly say that the old-fashioned times gave place to the new in 
the period between the birth of the nation by the adoption 
of the Constitution in 1789 and the incorporation of Spring- 
field as a city in 1852. During this period the ways of life 
had greatly changed and causes began to-be which later re- 
sulted in still further changes. 

In the earlier days, men and women, boys and girls, lived 
in a different way. Their work, their amusements, their 




114 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



studies, their mode of traveling and even of eating and drink- 
ing were different. The change in so simple a matter as get- 
ting a drink of water is typical of everything else. Once a 
well sweep (page 24) stood by every door, except where there 
was a convenient spring. "The old oaken bucket, the moss 
covered bucket" is no more; there is not now a well sweep 
within the limits of Springfield. One of the first ancient 
customs to pass away was that of slavery. From the day of 
John Stewart there had been slaves in Springfield, all, with 




Map of Hampden County. 



that exception, black. Finally people all felt that slavery 
was neither profitable nor right, and although the slaves had 
always been kindly treated as members of the family, yet the 
custom vanished of itself without the passing of any law 
against it. 

In this period, by the separation of Chicopee, Springfield 
came into the geographical form in which she has since re- 
mained, except for a slight change in the south line, and was 
henceforth the largest in population of the towns in the 



OLD TIMES AND NEW 



115 



valley. For a time this was not so. West Springfield, at one 
time, grew so rapidly as to be ahead of the mother town, and 
in the Revolution was called on to furnish more soldiers than 
Springfield; but the census of 1810 showed Springfield the 
more populous. Springfield, too, became the shire town of a 
new county. In the old county of Hampshire, which ex- 
tended from Connecticut to New Hampshire and Vermont 
and was flanked east by Worcester and west by Berkshire, 
Northampton had been a county town. When the old county 
was divided, the middle section 
retained the old name, taken from 
one of the old counties of Eng- 
land. The northern section was 
named for Benjamin Frankhn and 
the southern for John Hampden, 
a famous English patriot, who, 
believing that "Resistance to 
tyrants is obedience to God," went 
of his free will to jail rather than 
pay the unjust ship money tax 
imposed by King Charles. He 
received his death wound fight- 
ing for the cause of liberty on one 
of the battlefields of the English 
revolution. 

Returning now to the ancient 
ways of life, we remember, as 
said in the second chapter, that in the very earliest times 
the people lived in houses made of logs and thatched with 
straw or grass. For windows they often had only oiled paper 
instead of glass. But things had gradually improved; so that 
many of the boys and girls whose fathers went as soldiers in 




John Hampden. 



X16 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



the . Revolution lived in much larger and more convenient 
houses. Nevertheless, the best of those houses were rather 
cold in winter. Neither furnaces nor stoves were known. 
The only fire was in the great kitchen fireplace, with some- 
times another fireplace in the parlor. The great fire, built 
from huge sticks, crackled and roared and looked very warm, 
as indeed it was, if one was near enough to it. It boiled the 
kettle, hanging on the crane, and baked the buckwheat cakes; 
but while it gave out heat it was sucking in a deal of cold 
from all parts of the house, so that one would be warm in 
front and cold on the back, unless he sat on a settle. A settle 
was a seat with a high back extending to the floor. Sometimes 
the chimney place was so large that the settle was inside and 
one could look up and see the stars. 

When bedtime came the great fire was useless. It con- 
sumed a vast quantity of wood, the preparation of which made 
the sound of "chop, chop, chop," a very familiar one at every 
house, and, as there would be no one to feed it during the 
night, it was carefully covered with ashes, in order to keep the 

coals alive until the next morning. 
Should it go out in those days when 
matches were unknown, somebody 
would go to the neighbors for live 
coals. The bedrooms were, of course, 
pretty cold, but, thanks to the great 
feather beds, the sleepers got warm 
after awhile and were able to keep 
so, sometimes by the aid of close 
curtains, all around and above the bed. Just before getting 
in it, the bed would be heated by the warming pan, a brass 
pan containing live coals and moved about between the 
sheets. 




OLD TIMES AND NEW 



117 




FOOTSTOVE AND WarMING PaN. 



In the meeting-house there were no fireplaces; but the 
women tried to keep warm by the aid of a Httle footstove, 
filled with hot coals. The children, too, were often very cold 
in school. In the school house at Tatham little Lydia would 
find the pie frozen in the dinner basket under her seat, but 
she lived through it all to a healthy old age. It is not so much 
what we endure as how well we learn to endure, that 
counts. 

People made 
their own but- 
ter and cheese 
and the boys 
milked cows and 
churned butter, 
while the girls 
early learned to 
spin ; for the 

cloth generally worn was made in the family and for 
this reason called "homespun." It took continual spin- 
ning to make the clothes for a large family. The flax for 
linen was raised on the farm, then dressed and carded; the 
wool, too, was raised at home. For the colors, if brown was 
wanted, the children had to gather butternut leaves for the 
, „ dye. With all this, milking and 

churning, spinning and weaving, 
plantmg and hoeing, haying and husking, thresh- 
ing and gathering apples for cider, all going on 
in the family, there was not much time for young 
folks to go to school. 

One of the most useful farming tools was the 
flail. With it all the grain that" made bread for the family 
was pounded out by hand on the barn floor. The thumping 




118 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 




of the flail was as 
familar as the 
chopping of the 
axe as it cut the 
cords of wood for 
winter use. An 
old-time farmer 
tised to say that 
he could always 
tell whether the 
man doing the 
threshing was working by the day or by the job. If the former, 

the flail seemed to say, "By the day, by rthe 

day, by the — ■ — day;' ' if by the job, the flail sang merrily, 

"By-the-job, by-the-job, by the job, job, job." Such is hu- 
man nature that one is apt to accomplish more when he works 
for himself. When the right to do this is entirely cut off the 
result is slavery. 

Notice the farming operations, pictured on these two pages. 
Late in March or early in April comes maple sugar making 
and when the weather gets warm enough to put the sheep 
into the water, their wool is first washed and then sheared; 

during the slack 
time of summer, 
when planting 
and hoeing are 
over, rails can be 
split for mending 
the fences, and in 
the fall the boys 
can catch rabbits. 
All these were 




OLD TIMES AND NEW 



119 




familiar scenes 
hereabouts in 
olden times and 
are now in some 
parts of the 
country. One 
who wishes to 
recall in imagi- 
nation the way of 
living in the old 
days may visit the Day house in West Springfield and see the 
ancient relics. 

But about the beginning of the nineteenth century several 
events happened, which in the end changed all this and made 
Springfield, first, a large town, and then a city. The chief 
of these was the discovery of the useful power of steam; this 
meant steamboats and railroads. Others were the invention 
of the power loom and the spinning jenny, moved at first by 
water power; this meant the gathering of people into mills 
and the disappearance of cloth manufacture from the family. 
Modem machinery, in which Thomas Blanchard, of this town, 
won much fame as an inventor, began to take the place of 
human hands, the family life was all changed. There was 
less to be done 
and the bigger 
boys could go 
to school in 
summer, when 
before they 
cotild only be 
spared in the 
winter. With 




120 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

all these changes there was more demand for work and more 
people began to come from other countries. 

As the population increased the wild animals gave way before 
it. The panther retired to forests more remote; the beaver 
left the streams and the deer went further north and were not 
seen after 1820. The last bear known at Bear Hole came out 
of that dark lair about 1790 when Seth Smith was hoeing corn. 
Wild turkeys lingered but the last survivors were those on 
Mount Nonotuck about 1850. The beautiful salmon that 
once leaped and danced in the rapids of Schonunganunk en- 
tirely disappeared, soon to be followed by the sturgeon and 
the shad. 

A century and a half had passed after the settlement and 
as yet all the crossing of the river had been by canoes, skiffs 
and scow ferry boats, when one day the minister of the old 
church foretold a bridge in coming time. "Parson Howard 
talks like a fool," said Colonel Worthington. But Parson 
Howard was right and in 1805 the first bridge was completed. 
Not being strong enough it went down stream; but in 1816 
another was ready that was to outlast the century. Its great 
timbered arches were an object of admiration. When the 
large droves of cattle that once passed through the country 
were going over the bridge, running, pushing and throwing 
their horns about, it was up these arches that the foot traveler 
could run for safety. Both the bridges were built with money 
raised by a public lottery, for it was not until later that the 
evils resulting from getting money by chance were so clearly 
seen as to make games of chance to be forbidden by law. 

How Springfield looked from the river, below the town, 
in 1796, was described by President D wight of Yale College, 
who was taking a horseback journey up the valley. "We 
took," says he, in his "Travels in New England and New 



OLD TIMES AND NEW 



121 



York," "a road along the bank of a river from Suffield through 
an almost absolute wilderness and crossed a ferry, one mile 
below Springfield. On the river we were presented with a very 
romantic prospect. The river itself, for several miles, both 
above and below, one-fourth of a mile wide, was in full view. 
Agawam, a considerable tributary on the west, with a large 
and handsome interval on the tongue between the two streams, 







wl»lillllllla_iJllllil!il "^iijijl 



Agaw 'VM P Eh 



joined the Connecticut at a small distance above. The peak 
of Mount Tom rose nobly in the northwest, at a distance of 
twelve miles. A little eastward of the Connecticut the white 
spire of a Springfield church, embosomed in trees, animated 
the scene in a manner remarkably picturesque. On the side, 
immediately below the ferry, rose several rude hills, crossed 
by a sprightly mill stream. At their foot commenced an 
extensive intervale called Longmeadow; above which, in 



122 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



the midst of groves and orchards, ascended the spire of Long- 
meadow church. The evening was just so far advanced, as, 
without obscuring materially the distinctness of our view, 
to give an inimitable softening to the landscape. 

"We arrived at sundown. The town is built chiefly on 
a single street, lying parallel with the river nearly two miles. 



"■^s^^T^^ ^^-^j ' '■1 





The Old Toll Bridge. 



The houses are chiefly on the western side. On the eastern 
a brook runs almost the whole length; a fact which is, I. be- 
lieve, singular. From the street a marsh extends about forty 
or fifty rods to the brow of an elevated pine plain. The waters 
of this marsh are a collection of living springs, too cold and 
too active to admit of putrefaction on their surface; and 
for this reason, probably, the town is not unhealthy. 
Part of this marsh has been converted into a meadow. When 



OLD TIMES AND NEW 123 

the rest has undergone the same process, the beauty of the 
situation will be not a little improved. The houses of Spring- 
field are more uniformly well built than those of any other 
inland town in the state, except Worcester. An uncommon 
appearance of neatness prevails almost everywhere, refreshing 
the eye of the traveler." 

On a Monday, the 27th of November, 1824, a crowd of 
people was gathered at the foot of Elm street and at other 
places on the bank of the river. They were watching the com- 
ing 'of the first steamboat seen in Springfield. The Barnett 
must have been an object of great interest as she rounded the 
bend of the stream and steamed towards the town. On this 
occasion the following are supposed to have been the words of 

THE STURGEON TO THE STEAMBOAT. 




"What for ye 're makin' such a dashin' 

And through the water such a splashin' ? 
I'll tell ye what it's no the fashion 

In these 'ere parts, 
To make such a confounded buzzin' ; 
Take care or ye'll disturb our dozin' ! 
What are ye? first or second cousin 
To the Sea Sarpent?" 

Thus did a local rhymer express hinself in one of the news- 
papers. It was in this period that river steamboats were 
displacing stages, afterwards themselves ' to be displaced by 
railroads. The sturgeon, a fish about as big and long as a 
man's body, has not, it is believed, been seen in this part of 
the river for the past twenty-five years. 



124 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



A line of small steamboats was established between Spring- 
field and Hartford. On one of these Charles Dickens embarked 
when he came to this town in 1842. "It certainly was not 
called," he wrote, "a small steamboat without reason. I 
should think it must have been about half a pony power. 
Mr. Paap, the celebrated dwarf, might have lived and died 
happily in the cabin, which was fitted with common sash 

windows, like an ordinary dwell- 
ing house. These windows had 
bright red curtains too, hung on 
slack strings across the lower 
panes, so that it looked like the 
parlor of a Lilliputian public house, 
which had got afloat in a flood 
or some other water accident, and 
was drifting nobody knew where. 
But even in this chamber there 
was a rocking chair. It would be 
impossible to get on anywhere, in 
America, without a rocking chair." 
It was just before this visit of 
the great novelist that the railroad 
had been built from Boston to 
Springfield. The people of the 
town had been eager to bring this 
to pass. They knew that great things would come of it and 
Justice Willard declared in a public meeting that one would be 
able to go from Springfield to Boston "between sun and sun." 
But when he added and "back again," there were those who 
thought it a wild prophecy. Pictures of the early engines and 
cars look queer to our eyes. The passengers had to endure some 
bumping over rough track but they welcomed something faster 




Connecticut River Steamboat 

IN A Flood. 
From " Marco Paul at the Spring- 
field Armory" 18.53, 



OLD TIMES AND NEW 



125 




than the old yellow stages, with four horses and a bugle, that 
connected Springfield with Boston, Albany, Hartford and 
other towns. The chief engineer of the new railroad was 
Major Whistler, whose portrait hangs in the City Library. He 
brought his boy, James, with him when he came to reside here. 
James used to amuse his schoolmates with his clever draw- 
ings and afterwards went abroad, where he became one of the 
famous artists of the world. His paintings and etchings hang 
in the great galleries of Europe. 

When the rail- 
road was built 
from Springfield 
to Hartford it 
made necessary 
the removal of 
the ancient ceme- 
tery at the foot of Elm street. The training ground and the 
pound had long since gone and for the cemetery there was now 
provided a beautiful tract of hill and dell which, for a cemetery, 
is exceptionally near the heart of the city, yet so full of birds 
and squirrels, old oaks and tall pines, as to be interesting to a 
naturalist. To this place was removed the dust of Mary 
Pynchon, of her brother, the Major, of the brave Captain 
Holyoke and the good French peddler. The selection of this 
spot was made by William B. O. Peabody, clergyman, poet, 
naturalist and a man of pure and refined character, whose life, 
most of it spent here, was a blessing to the town. By reason 
of his knowledge of birds the celebrated Audubon once came 
here to visit him. Verses by him are given- on page 39. 

Two notable men visited Springfield at about the close of 
this period. One was Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, 
a champion of freedom, an exile from his country, and a 



126 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



master of thirteen languages. He made here an address in 
English. The other was Father Mathew, the great apostle 
of total abstinence, whose wonderful work in Ireland had filled 

the world with his fame and 
made the temperance reform 
respected and popular. By 
his own efforts for temperance 
he had remarkably reduced the 
amount of crime committed 
in his own country. Coming to 
Springfield in 1849 and stand- 
ing in the church of his own 
faith, then located on the cor- 
ner of Union and Willow 
streets, he administered the 
pledge to people of all faiths. 
Many societies that are 
today organized for total 
abstinence bear his honored name. 

The Armory has been a great help to the prosperity of 
Springfield. We 
have seen that 
Washington ap- 
proved of the 
location here. 
When president, 
he passed through 
the town and his 
diary describes his 
careful inspec- 
tion. Little had 
as yet been done; but later such buildings were erected as 




Theobald Mathew. 




OLD TIMES AND NEW 



127 



allowed a large manufacture. As the words are used in the 
United States, an armory is a place for the manufacture of 
arms and an arsenal a place where they are stored. It was 

decided that the 







* * vi; Ion '5 fellow. 



heavy work of 
forging the bar- 
rels should be 
done at theWater- 
shops, where the 
trip hammer 
could be run by water power, 
and on the hill, "Armory Hill," 
should be done the lighter work 
of filing, milling and assembling. 
Walnut street was then run 
straight through the woods and 
over the plain to connect the two 
parts of the Armory, and on the 
hill there began to be, as it were, 
almost a village by itself, com- 
posed largely of armorers, with 
even lawyers' offices, and a bank. 
So distinct were these commun- 
ities that there was rivalry be- 
tween the boys of the "Hill" 
and the "Street," and snowball 
and other fights were common 
between "Hillers" and "Streeters." When a boy of either 
set passed the line of School and Spring streets he was sub- 
ject to attack by the boys of the other side. 

The Armory has long been noted for its excellent guns 
and the old "Springfield musket" did good service in the 



128 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



Civil war; but, good as it was, the present Springfield rifle 
shows what may be accomplished by continual improvement. 
The tower of the Arsenal is eighty-eight and one-half feet 
high and among those who have ascended it for the fine view 
of this valley was the poet Longfellow. In his day a floor 
was nearly filled with guns, stacked in frames. His attention 
was called by Mrs. Longfellow to the fact that these stacked 
arms resembled the pipes of an organ ; and to this circumstance 
is due one of the finest poems ever written in the cause of 
universal peace. The prophecy in the second stanza was fully 
realized a few years later in the Civil war. 




OLD TIMES AND NEW 129 



THE ARSENAL AT SPRINGFIELD. 

This is the Arsenal. From floor to ceiling, 
Like a huge organ, rise the burnished arms; 

But from their silent pipes no anthem pealing 
Startles the villages with strange alarms. 

Ah ! what a sound will rise, how wild and dreary, 
When the death-angel touches those swift keys ! 

What loud lament and dismal Miserere 
Will mingle with their awful symphonies ! 

I hear even now the infinite fierce chorus. 

The cries of agony, the endless groan, 
Which through the ages that have gone before us. 

In long reverberations reach our own. 

On helm and harness rings the Saxon hammer, 

Through Cimbric forest roars the Norseman's song, 

And loud, amid the universal clamor, 

O'er distant deserts sounds the Tartar gong. 

I hear the Florentine, who from his palace 
Wheels out his battle-bell with dreadful din. 

And Aztec priests upon their teocallis 

Beat the wild war-drums made of serpent's skin; 

The tumult of each sacked and burning village; 

The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns; 
The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage; 

The wail of famine in beleaguered towns; 



130 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder, 
The rattling musketry, the clashing blade ; 

And ever and anon, in tones of thunder, 
The diapason of the cannonade. 

Is it, O man, with such discordant noises, 
With such accursed instruments as these, 

Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly voices, 
And jarrest the celestial harmonies? 

Were half the power, that fills the world with terror, 
Were half the wealth, bestowed on camps and courts. 

Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
There were no need of arsenals nor forts ; 

The warrior's name would be a name abhorred ! 

And every nation, that should lift again 
Its hand against a brother, on its forehead 

Would wear f orevermore the curse of Cain ! 

Down the dark future, through long generations. 
The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease; 

And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 
I hear once more the voice of Christ say, 
"Peace!" 

Peace ! and no longer from its brazen portals 
The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies! 

But beautiful as songs of the immortals 
The holy melodies of love arise. 

—Longfellow, 1807-1882 







' ./ i\ \ 



Entrance to Springfield over the Old Toll Bridge. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE NEW CITY.— ANTI-SLAVERY.— THE CIVIL WAR. 

WE have now come to the year 1852. As the new world 
reckons youth and age, Springfield was no longer 
young. With age had come numbers ; the population 
had reached 12,000 and the town was already not only a 
mother of towns, but a grandmother. The size of the popula- 
tion made necessary a change in the method of government. 
For over two hundred years the voters had all met together 
for the town business, gathering first under some tree, then 
in some private house, next in the meeting-house and last in 
the town hall on State street. At first the settlement was 
called a plantation, for this is all it was, a tract of planted 
ground in a wilderness and surrounded by wild beasts and 
Indians. This word had long been replaced by the word 



132 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



"town," meaning a community whose affairs are governed by 
selectmen chosen bv aU the voters meeting together in one 
place. 

This plan now becoming impracticable because of the 
increasing number, the General Court of Massachusetts granted 
a charter or body of laws for the regulation of affairs by 
which the government was to be, by a city council and mayor 
chosen by the voters meeting in wards, then first created. 
Upon the acceptance of this charter April 21, 1852, the old 
town became a young city, the first in western Massachusetts. 
From this time there has been no essential change in the 
territorial limits, but each census has shown continued growth 
of population. 

Every town which has been incorporated into a city has 
its corporate seal. A seal is an engraved stamp which, being 
impressed upon paper or wax, shows that what is written or 
printed on the paper is genuine and has such authority as the 
owner of the seal can give it. The effect of the seal on the 
paper is, of course, to make a raised impression, but some- 
times a likeness of the seal is printed from a platelike type. 
By such a printing a book or document is not really or legally 
sealed, but for many purposes this is sufficient. The real 
seal is in the custody of the city clerk. 

The seal of the city of Springfield, as adopted, was de- 
scriptive of what the town had been and 
then was. In the lowex" left-hand quarter 
is a view of the river with boats and with 
houses on the bank. In the right-hand 
quarter is the house built by John Pynchon, 
or "old fort." Above, nearly the whole 
field is occupied by a view of a railroad 
train passmg out of the station, as the station was then, and 




THE NEW CITY 133 

crossing the river. In the upper part of the seal is the United 
States Arsenal. Thus here are represented commerce by rail 
and river, manufactures and history. There is not, as in the 
seals of Connecticut and Vermont, any suggestion of agricul- 
ture. This only shows how the old "plantation" was becoming 
lost in the modern city. 

When the charter was accepted the first thing to be done 
was to elect a mayor and the members of the city council. 
The latter was composed of a board of nine aldermen and a 
common council. There were two candidates for mayor and 
both eventually held the office; but for the first time Caleb 
Rice was chosen. He was then the high sheriff of the county 
and had removed to Springfield from West Springfield. He 
had a daughter Elizabeth, who, when she grew to womanhood, 
went to Italy for study and married a citizen of that country. 
She wrote verses and, under her married name of Bianciardi, 
published a book called "At Home in Italy." 

Soon after the incorporation of the city there was built a 
City Hall, a large and towered building, holding all the city 
offices and also having a big audience room for public meetings. 
There was a bell in the tower that took up the work of the 
church bell, in announcing to the people, in the ancient fashion, 
that the hour of nine o'clock at night had come. It was also 
the bell of the clock, striking the hours. The nine o'clock bell 
was at last discontinued and in later years replaced by the 
so-called curfew or bell at half-past nine. For half a century 
the City Hall was a favorite for large political meetings, fairs 
and concerts, but in 1905 it was destroyed by fire and the 
great bell fell to the ground. 

An exhibition was being held in the large hall. At the 
noon hour this hall was nearly deserted. A kerosene lamp 
was burning and a monkey got loose. Whether the monkey 



134 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



overturned the lamp and caused the fire is not certainly 
known. The fire was the occasion of a fine example of devotion 
to duty by two assistants in the office of the city clerk. Their 
names were Edith M. Ware and Bertha B. Fuller. They had 
both been pupils in Springfield schools. For the protection 
of the priceless records of the city there was a great fire-proof 
valut. It was necessary to take out the records during the 
day '!or use, but at its close they were replaced in the vault. 





HI 



rffiiiu 



City Hall, 1854-1905. 

At the beginning of the fire the city clerk was absent. When 
the knowledge of the fire reached his office it had made much 
headway and danger was near. The first impulse, of course, 
would be to flee, and, indeed, everyone was fleeing from the 
building; but there were the heavy books of priceless records 
lying about. The two clerks gathered them all up, placed 
them all in the vault and then shut and locked the ponderous 
door. This took time and courage. Meanwhile the fire was 
upon them and they were but just able to escape; in fact, 



ANTI-SLAVERY 135 

Miss Fuller, arriving at the door of the building, was so over- 
come by the smoke that she had to be rescued by others. 

Thus the lesson of doing one's duty, having been early 
learned, received its magnificent illustration in the face of 
danger and death and becomes a part of the history of the city. 
We recall the motto of John Pynchon, when, self-interest 
tempting him to remove from Springfield and leave the town 
to its fate, he wrote that he should <v , j aa. 

While Springfield was yet a town, there began to be a great 
deal said about slavery, as it existed in the South, and its 
spread into the new states. Among the people of Springfield, 
some of them were deeply interested. Most of them believed 
that slavery was wrong and a curse to the country and some 
wanted to do what they could to help the slaves. The laws 
were against them and forbade aiding a runaway slave, but 
they believed there was, in this case, a higher law, above the 
laws of men. Accordingly they arranged with the others of the 
same opinions, who lived in other states, to aid the slaves 
who tried to escape from their masters. 

When a slave, traveling through the woods by night and 
successful in eluding the bloodhounds on his track, at last 
got into a free state north of Maryland, he would go to the 
house of one of the friends of freedom of whom he had heard 
in some secret way. Here he would be kept through the day 
and at night he would start for the house of some other friend, 
further north. Thus he would keep on until he reached Canada, 
and, that being a British province, as soon as he touched her 
soil he became lawfully free. The line of 'escape from Mary- 
land to Canada, by reason of the secrecy and night traveling, 
was called "the underground railroad," and the houses of 
the friends of freedom made the different stations. 



136 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



The house of Doctor Osgood, minister of the old church' 
no longer the only church, was one of the stations. It was 
on Main street, just below Howard street. When the runaway 
arrived, before light in the morning, he was given a break- 
fast and put to bed in a little back 
room which the Doctor called "the 
prophet's chamber." At night he 
started again on his journey. In 
one of these years as many as fifty 
slaves were sheltered by the min- 
ister. It is evident that Doctor 
Osgood was a man of sympathy 
and kindness and had the courage 
to stand by what he believed. He 
was interesting in other ways, blunt 
and witty in his speech, as illus- 
trated in the stories still current 
about him. All his life in the minis- 
try was spent in Springfield and he died an aged and honored 
man. When he was visiting a school, as a member of the 
committee, the teacher wrote a figure "9" on the blackboard, 
without closing the loop at the top. "What's that," said the 
doctor, "a hook?" This amused the scholars and probably 
made the teacher more careful about figures. 

Among the citizens of Springfield who took an active 
interest in anti-slavery, there is none more famous than John 
Brown, but he was not then famous; he was only known as 
a wool merchant with his warehouse near the railroad and 
his house at one time was on the north side of Franklin street, 
about one hundred feet from Main street and is yet standing. 
He was more concerned about slavery than wool. His soul 
was on fire with indignation, that man should hold property 




Samuel Osgood. 



ANTI-SLAVERY 



137 



' lY 



in man. He prayed much about it; but what could he, a 
wool merchant, do except to help the slaves along on the under- 
ground railroad, as others 
did? There was no sacri- 
fice that he would not 
n":ake. His family felt 
as strongly about slavery 
as he did and on one occa- 
sion father, mother and 
children agreed that some 
money which was needed 
for furnishing the parlor 
of the Franklin street 
house should be used 
for the runaway slaves. 




138 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

One evening there was an address by the eminent Charles 
Sumner, who, as senator from Massachusetts afterwards was 
almost killed on account of his speeches against slavery. 
After the address Sumner and Brown went into the back 
store of Rufus Elmer, a Main street shoe dealer and ardent 
abolitionist. They were talking of the slavery question, when 
Sumner said, "Mr. Brown, slavery is doomed; but not in 
your day or in mine." Brown, raising high his hand, brought 
it down with decision, saying devoutly, "I hope to God to 
die in the cause." 

Not long after he went to Kansas and engaged in the 
struggle to make the new state a free state. He and his family 
risked their lives there and one of his sons was killed. He 
became widely known as "Ossawatomie Brown." He then 
went to Virginia and attempted to set in execution his plan to 
free the slaves, by arming them with pikes. It failed and he 
was hanged for treason against the commonwealth of Vir- 
ginia. But the country was stirred and this event was one of 
those that brought on the Civil war. It was not long before 
the soldiers of the National army were going to battle with 
the song of 

"John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave 
But his soul goes marching on." 

Its strains were wafted back to his old home in Springfield 
and the children in the public schools were singing it. Brown 
made a mistake as to how slavery could be fended, but his was 
a great heart true to God and his fellow men, and really helped 
in the overthrow of slavery in a way that he did not think. 

John Brown of Ossawatomie spake on his dying day; 

" I will not have to shrive my soul a priest in Slavery's pay. 

But let some poor slave-mother whom I have striven to free, 

With her children, from the gallows-stair put up a prayer for me!" 



ANTI-SLAVERY 139 

John Brown of Ossawatomie, they led him out to die; 

And lo ! a poor slave-mother with her little child pressed nigh. 

Then the bold, blue eye grew tender, and the old harsh face grew 

mild. 
As he stooped between the jeering ranks and kissed the negro's 

child! 

The shadows of his stormy life that moment fell apart ; 
And they who blamed the bloody hand forgave the loving heart. 
That kiss from all its guilty means redeemed the good intent. 
And round the grizzly fighter's hair the martyr's aureole bent!" 

— Whit iter. 

On April 5, 1857, died Springfield's last survivor of the 
Revolution, familiarly known to the children as "Grandpa 
Edwards." He had long been a 
feature in the processions on the 
Fourth of July, riding in a carriage 
and returning the salutations of the 
bystanders. His funeral was the 
occasion of military display, with 
martial music. 

There used to be much gay color 
and decoration in the militia, all of which was laid aside for 
serious business when the Civil war came on in 1861. The City 
Guards, who were out at Grandpa Edwards' funeral, wore blue 
frock coats, light trousers and looked very formidable in their 
towering bear skin hats. The Horse Guards used to wear red 
coats, white trousers and chapeaux, like those of the Knights 
Templar, carrying a black or white plume. They carried sabres 
and had pistol holders each side of the saddle. The Light 
Infantry, who had flourished before 1844; wore red swallow- 
tailed coats, white trousers, and on their conical hats wore 
fountain plumes, that is, several plumes drooping. By their 
sides they carried canteens. The parade ground was the plain 




140 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



^K^ 


^^HK^'^'^i 




Si 


1/^ 
8/ V; 


^B 


™i^^K 




m 


^ 


^f^ 


|MI 




^^^^ 


^fc^^ 


Pv/1 


J^t"^ f^ 


sti^J 




^cHUPn^B^^^^^' ^H 


n 7*^> '^^ V 


* — r*4 


S<^7 ^ 


Ju <^i^^Z^ 


■^^^j*^ 


K^&SSiXSBI^in^ ,:.^9m 


^1 V *; 'iokL 


^jt^jg 


^^^ 


^g^W gg2 




^^'^ Zf. 1 if' • >i.'ai-,-^TO 




^^?^* 




tttfnK ShB 



The Spirit of Training Day. 



around the lately accepted Gerrish Park. Training Day was 
one of the great days of the year to old and young. 

As the last of the soldiers of the Revolution were dropping 

into their graves, 
events began to 
happen which, in 
the end brought 
forth a mightier 
army than was 
ever marshalled 
in this country 
before or since. One of these, as we have seen, was John 
Brown's raid in Virginia, voicing the feelings, though not the 
policy, of a large part of the north; but the culminating one 
was the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Brown 
ineffectually struck at slavery, but it was for the great president 
in the midst of a war that shook the very foundations of the 
nation, to strike slavery down and give freedom to millions 
of people. 

It was at Chicago, in 1860, that Lincoln was nominated, 
and the president of the convention was George Ashmun of 
this city, a distinguished and able man. He had been in Con- 
gress and was an intimate friend of the great Daniel Webster, 
whose famous speeches had already taught the people that 
the Union could not legally be broken by the secession of any 
one or more of the states. Webster used often to be in Spring- 
field, visiting Ashmun, and together they fished in the brooks 
of Granby or hunted woodcock within the present limits of 
Forest Park. 

A memorial of Ashmun remains on the lawn, where was 
once his residence, at the corner of School and Mulberry streets. 
Standing there with his little daughter and looking at a small 



THE CIVIL WAR 



141 



sapling, he remarked, "As the twig is bent, the tree's incHned," 
and twisted the two stems of the sapHng. The great elm 
still stands to teach its lesson that it is in childhood and youth 
that character is formed. 

After the Chicago Convention 
had nominated Lincoln, Mr. Ash- 
mun, as chairman of the com- 
mittee, went to Mr. Lincoln's home 
to inform him of the fact. Some 
friends had sent in a hamper of 
wine that the committee and others 
might drink his health. But Mr. 
Lincoln, having early in life seen 
the evil of intemperance, never 
touched strong drink or offered it InIqlINED/|'| 
in his home. On this occasion, 
also, he showed the courage of his 
opinions and cold water took the 
place of wine. 

The inauguration of Lincoln 
was quickly followed by the loss 

of Fort Sumter at the hands of the rising South. From Spring- 
field, of course, went forth brave men who should fight the 
dreadful battles of a four-years' war, to save the Union. Where 
are now Wilbraham avenue and others streets east of it was 
a regimental camp, drilling and awaiting orders to move. 

The children had a share in the great events. The girls 
made "comfort bags" which held needles, thread and other 
little needful things for homeless soldiers. who had no sisters 
to sew on buttons or mend a rent, and the boys collected money 
to pay for those things. There were men needed in the Armory 
as well as on the field and the works were run night and day. 




AsHMUN Memorial. 



142 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



For four years the war went on, with alternating successes 
and defeats for the north until at last the victories won by 
General Grant indicated that he would, in the end, bring all 
out right. Guiding all was the wise Lincoln, criticised, reviled, 




Making Comfort Bags. 

weighed down with responsibility, but looking always to a 
Higher Power for help for himself and the nation. 

One day the bells of Springfield rang out with joy; the 
President had made a proclamation freeing the slaves. It was 
very different from the time when the bell of the old Methodist 
church on the corner of Union and Mulberry streets was 
tolled, the day when John Brown was hanged. Only a few years 
had passed and what, at first, seemed an idle dream of an 



THE CIVIL WAR 143 

enthusiast was now an accomplished fact. Thus "Man pro- 
poses and God disposes." With great wisdom Lincoln had 
chosen the day and made the proclamation in which may be 
read this sentence, "Upon this act, sincerely believed to be 
an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military 
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and 
the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

In the spring of 1865 came the close of the war, quickly 
followed by the martyrdom of the President and the linking 
of his name as saviour of the country with that of Washington, 
its father. The regiments from Springfield and vicinity were 
mustered out of service and, returning to the city, made their 
last march through Main street, their ranks thinned by death 
and themselves looking worn and tired. But they had done 
their share in proving the truth of Webster's words, "Liberty 
and Union, one and inseparable, now and forever." Upon 
the results of the Revolution and the Civil War the nation 
rests in security. 

It was not many weeks after the end of this w^ar that 
General Grant made a brief visit to this city. He had fought 
many battles in which his soldiers were armed with the Spring- 
field musket, and of course, he was interested in the place 
of its manufacture. He inspected the Armory on the Hill 
and also the Watershops. He was greeted by a great crowd 
of citizens near the railroad station and taken upon a high 
platform whence he was introduced by the mayor, but he 
made no speech. His deeds were mighty, but on public occa- 
sions his words were few. There seemed to be nothing military 
in his appearance, except a narrow cord of yellow braid around 
his hat and the single star on his shoulder. 

Among those who came to this city and spoke in the cause 
of freedom in the days of anti-slavery and the Civil war were 



144 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

Carl Schurz, the exiled German patriot, who, after becoming 
a citizen of the United States, became a general in the army 
in the Civil war and afterwards a famous statesman; and 
Frederick Douglas, once a slave and afterwards an eloquent 
orator, who held high positions in the gift of the nation. An 
interesting woman who resided here was Eliza Farrer, a writer 
for children. She had had many experiences in various parts 
of the world and wrote about them in a book, which she called 
"Recollection of Seventy Years." 

Two men who had a very wide reputation were the editors, 
Samuel Bowles and Josiah Gilbert Holland. Doctor Holland 
wrote many books, of which his "Letters to Young People" 
were practical and popular. He wrote "Bay Path," an his- 
torical novel about Mary Pynchon, and started the Century 
magazine. There is a fine profile of his face on his monument 
in the old cemetery, made by St. Gaudens, the famous sculptor 
of the statue in honor of Deacon Chapin on Merrick Park. 
Samuel Bowles, the second in the line of four journalists of 
that name, was one of the founders of modern journalism. 
He was once unjustly imprisoned in another state for telling 
the truth about a man who did much evil; for he believed 
that his journal should be outspoken when the public interests 
were at stake. 




CHAPTER X. 



A LOOK BACKWARDS— THE SPANISH WAR.— THE 
TWENTIETH CENTURY. 

4^^^ N THE year 1886, Springfield celebrated the two 
hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement. 
A quarter of a millennium had gone by and people 
looked back and compared the then present with 
the past. There was an oration and a great pro- 
cession, including an historical pageant in which 
many boys and girls took part. The times of William 
Pynchon were illustrated in costume by those in 
the procession. The chief marshal was William 
Pynchon, seventh in descent from the founder. 

It is when looking back from one of these view 
points that we realize how great has been the 
progress of the city in this long period. In this last chapter 
it will be well to select two examples and see how the modern 
times differ from the old. One of these examples shall be the 
means of putting out fires and the other the education cf 
children. 

In early days houses were, some of them, shingled, but 
many thatched with straw. Of course great care had to be 
taken lest a spark should get into the straw, as it might do 
from a burning chimney or from some one carrying coals 
through the street. So the town voted that no one should 
carry uncovered fire along the street and that every man 
should sweep out his chimney every month in winter and 
every two months in summer. He was obliged also to keep 




146 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



a ladder of sixteen rungs for better getting at the roof. One 
man was fined for smoking on a haycock. In order that 
water might be always at hand the ditch or brook in front 
of the houses was to be kept well scoured and a good stream 
running. So when fire came and the roof caught some went 
up the ladder and others passed up water from the brook. 
Until after the Revolution this was the only way of putting 
out a fire. 

At last some of the citizens bought a little fire engine and 

gave it to the 
church for the use 
of the town. Of 
course there was 
no steam about 
it; the power of 
steam was not 
yet known. The 
engine was merely 
a pump on wheels. 
There was a small 
reservoir for water, called a tub, and the pump handles were 
long wooden rods at each side called brakes. In order to 
see it in action let us suppose that it is the year 1810, a year 
in which a fire occurred in a house on the corner of Dwight 
and State streets. Whoever has discovered the fire has shouted 
the alarm. Everybody who hears it shouts "Fire! Fire! 
Fire!" at the top of his voice. The cry is taken up until 
probably from Mill river to Round Hill people are shquting 
"fire!" The bell on the old church is ringing. Every man is 
obliged to keep a fire bucket and some have bags in which to 
carry out articles to a place of safety. When a man leaves 
his house he catches up his bucket, or if he is not at home, 




THE OLD FIRE DEPARTMENT 



147 



his wife tosses it out to some one who is hurrying by and will 
give it to the owner when he meets him at the fire. 

Meanwhile the engine men have opened the door of the 
engine house, then standing at a place which is now in the 
roadway of State street, near Market. The machine is pulled 
out and run up the street to the burning building. Men are 





The BuKNiNt, of I'.S. Akmokv, i»2.i. 



now running to the scene froni all directions. No sooner are 
they arrived than they take their places in a double line 
which runs from the house to the town brook. Up one line 
the buckets full of water are passed only to go rapidly back 
again when they have been emptied into the tub. Everybody 
works lively and the tub is kept full. A man standing on the 
engine directs the stream upon the fire through a short hose. 



148 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



The hose is so short, only five feet in length, that the engine 
must be got very close to the building, and even then it is 
not very effective to reach the roof. The men at the brake are 
working with might and main, and between their efforts and 
those who have got upon the roof and poured on water, the 
fire is put out. Some of the boarding is burned but the huge 
beams are only charred, even yet to stand for three-quarters 
of a century before the old house was to give way to a modern 
building. 

It was some years after this that a longer hose came into 

use and also a 
suction hose, so 
that the engine 
standing by the 
brook could suck 
up its own water 
and the firemen 
could reach with the long hose the Main street houses. As 
building on Main street increased in height this was very im- 
portant. One night the Hampden house at the northeast corner 
of Court Square took fire. As the hose was being taken up the 
stairs the firemen met a colored songstress, who had given a 
concert that evening. She was known as "the Black Swan." 
Frantic with excitement, she exclaimed, "Save me, I'm the 
Black Swan." "Look out, then," said a fireman, "or you'll 
get your feathers scorched." Of course the town brook was 
of no use except in the old part of the town, so, as the city 
increased, large reservoirs kept full by rains were constructed 
under the streets. Several of these remain, as, for example, 
one on Union street near Mulberry. The old engine was in 
time replaced by another and then others were added, the 
"Lion," the "Tiger," the "Niagara" and the "Cataract;" 




THE OLD FIRE DEPARTMENT 149 

then the "Eagle" and the "Ocean;" and there was a hook 
and ladder company manned by Germans. 

It was in those days of several hand engines that "Fire- 
men's Muster" was a favorite holiday. The procession was 
gay with the red coats, shining black hats and blue trousers 
of the men as they pulled at the ropes attached to their engines 
and hose carts. After the procession the "Lions" and the 
"Tigers," the "Niagaras" and the "Cataracts," the "Eagles" 
and the "Oceans" would have a grand trial of strength to 
see whose engine was best and who could pump the hardest 
and reach the highest point on a tall flagstaff, or, it might be, 
the steeple of the First church. The best engine, if well 
manned, could wet the rooster. To the 
comb of the rooster the distance is 169 
feet. The bird himself is five feet high. 
He came over from London about the year 
1750 and has looked down on generations 
of firemen and upon soldiers going out to 
several wars. A likely tradition has it that 
an eagle once alighted upon him and was 
shot from below. In 1902 one of these birds was seen hovering 
over St. Michael's cathedral. 

They are almost all gone who tried to reach the rooster in 
friendly rivalry with the old hand engines, and in these days 
the firemen have so much serious business that there is not 
much opportunity for sport. The great steam fire engines, 
the chemical engines, the hose tower, the extension ladders, 
the electric alarm and other devices for coping with big fires, 
aided by a water service that makes the town brook and rain 
water cisterns seem ridiculous, form a marked contrast be- 
tween old and new times. If a man's house burned down he 
lost all and his neighbors helped him to erect another. Now 




150 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

he collects the insurance from some company that he has paid 
to guarantee him against loss. The fine building of the Spring- 
field Fire and Marine Insurance Company probably had in 
itself a cost of construction equal to the value of all the build- 
ings in the town when the Indians gave it to the torch. 

We have already seen how simple the schools were in olden 
times and what sort of things the boys and girls used to do 
when out of school. The schools did not change much until the 




Ancient Schoolhouse of West Springfield. 

nineteenth century. There were but few things taught and 
those not particularly well. Nevertheless hard work counted, 
as it always does when applied to something useful. As in the 
second chapter we made an imaginary visit to the meeting- 
house, so we will now look into one of the schools of a hundred 
years ago, say, the school on Armory Hill, or in the Water- 
shops district or at Putts Bridge or some other school of the 
outer districts. In the summer the school has been taught by 
a woman, but now the farm work is over and the big boys, 
no longer needed for work, are coming in for their winter 
schooling. 



OLD TIME SCHOOLS 



151 



A man is needed for the winter term and a strong one, 
for the big boys Hke to show their strength and will measure 
it with the teacher the very first day. Some years they suc- 
ceeded in putting a school- 
master out of doors ; they have 
even been known to rub him 
in the snow. If he could not 
handle them his usefulness was 
over. The teacher of this year 
was a good wrestler. He de- 
termined to meet the boys in a 
friendly spirit and challenged the 
strongest for a wrestling match. 
He won and was henceforth the 
master, and thus he was always 
called; a title that meant a 
good deal, when the spirit of 
insubordination was liable to 
break forth, as often it did, in 
an old time school. This was 
not so strange, considering the 
fact that the teacher was supposed to rule with a rod. If it 
was not a rod, it might be a birch stick and many a boy has 
been sent out to 
cut one for his 
own back. This 
old master wished 
only to cause tem- 
porary pain in his 
punishments, so 
he generally used 
a strap, which 
only stung for a moment. The boys called it "the tug." 





152 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



As we enter the schoolroom we see the master at a rude 

desk in a corner. He is engaged in mending pens. They are 

NEW ENGLAND PRIMER. 11 of goosB quiUs and to be 

able to put a neat point on 
them is one of his valuable 
accomplishments. On the 
desk is a sand box. Blot- 
ting paper is unknown, and 
to dry the ink some black 
sand is poured upon it out 
of pin holes in the sand 
box. The older children 
who have need to write 
have long desks in front 
of them, while the younger 
are seated on benches with 
no backs. Perhaps the 
writing lesson comes first, 
in which case the master 
produces some slips of paper 
neatly written with such 
sentences as, "Command 
the mind and then the pen;" and these the scholars copy. 
These copies the teacher would take with him if he went to 
another school. The reading lesson may 
be from the "English Reader," or from 
"Webster's Spelling Book," or, perhaps, 
from the "New England Primer," in which 
last the younger scholars learned to re- 
member the alphabet by such verses and 
pictures as those on this page. Notice that I and J were con- 
sidered as equivalent in old printing. 



As runs the Glass, 
Man's life doth pass. 

My book and Heart 
Shall never part. 

Job feels the Rod, 
Yet blesses God. 

Proud Korah's troop 
Was swallow'd up. 

The Lion bold 
The lamb doth hold, 

TheMoon gives light 
In time of night. 




G H IJ K L M 




OLD TIME SCHOOLS 



153 




Peculiar punishments were more common in olden times 
than now. The dunce cap belongs to a forgotten past but the 
writer remembers a so-called dunce-block, — the end of a 
huge beam painted red, in one of the lower grades of the 
Springfield schools, upon which silly boys were made to sit. 

There are now 
scarcely any coun- 
try schools left in 
Springfield and the 
country work and 
sports have largely 
passed away. Few 
boys know how to milk and no 
girl can spin. The husking bees 
that made good times in the 
great barns on Main street are 
no more. Thanks to pond and 
hill, skating and coasting are yet 
in vogue, although for the safety 
of all, including children, restric- 
tions have to be imposed upon 
coasting on the more traveled 
streets. Sometimes the young 
1887 people have successfully opposed 

the placing of these restrictions, as appears from some con- 
temporary verses in the Homestead. A spirit of independence, 
if in obedience to the laws, is admirable, as in the case of the 
Boston boys who remonstrated with General Gage when the 
British soldiers spoiled their coasting. 

Notwithstanding the more meager results and rougher 
ways, yet, so far as we can judge from what old scholars have 
left on record about it. the school life of other days contributed 



To The 
Central Street Coasters 

Shout, boys and girls, 

The victory's won! 
The cranky folks 

Can't spoil your fun. 
Bring out your sleds 

An' let 'em speed ; 
The aldermen 

Have all agreed 
To let you have 

The jolly treat 
Of coasting still 

On Central street. 



154 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



to that happy joyousness which belongs to childhood and 
youth. Take, for example, from the High School Portfolio, 
published by the boys and girls in the fifties, these verses 
from which the fun bubbles up above all the mishaps. 



WADING THROUGH THE SNOW 

When the winds are blowing 

Hard, with all their might, 
And the snowdrifts measure 

More than half your height. 
Friends and schoolmates, have you — 

Now I want to know — 
Ever had the pleasure 

Of wading through the snow ? 




The Weathervane of 
THE Old High School, 
Court Square, Show- 
ing Bullet Holes. 
Height, Three Feet. 

Dozen books to carry, 

Dinner basket full. 
And a great umbrella, 

On our way to school. 
Sixty miles an hour 

Railroad cars do go ; 
Mercy ! don't we beat 'em 

Wading through the snow? 

Falling into snowdrifts. 

Dropping every book. 
Losing all the cookies 

And the pie we took ; 
Feet and fingers frozen. 

Patience nearly so ; 
Ain't it awful funny 

Wading through the snow ? 



Opposite the arsenal 

Half -past eight we see ; 
Goodness ! we must hurry. 

Else, tardy we shall be. 
So we set to running 

Fast as we can go. 
Take two steps and tumble 

Headlong in the snow. 

Finally we halted 

At the schoolhouse door. 
With our journey ended, 

And our danger o'er; 
So with joyful faces 

Up the stairs we go; 
Think again you'll catch us 

Wading through the snow f" 



OLD TIME SCHOOLS 



155 



It was years after that the same girl described her Hfe in 
one of the grammar schools in some verses, from which the 
following are taken, called 



A TRIBUTE TO AN OLD TEACHER 



g%^€^:^ 



^^S'f 




Our memory wakes, and we recall 
The little, dreary, sandy yard. 

The schoolroom with its dingy wall, 
The straight-backed benches, stiff 
hard ; 



and 



The songs, long since, gone out of date. 
With which the schoolroom used to ring; 

And the old-fashioned book and slate. 
Yes, we remember everything. 



But over all has come a change: 
This is an unfamiliar place ; 

The only thing that is not strange 
Is our beloved teacher's face. 

Oh, could we take our dusty books. 
And once more trudge away to 
school. 
And sit beneath those gracious looks 
That softened e'en the strictest 
rule, 




"This is an Unfamiliar Place." 




And could we hear his words of praise. 

That were so precious to our ears. 
And feel the patience of his ways, 
~ That never failed through all those years, 

:4,|,-;-j^We should not tease and vex him now 

With whispering, carelessness, and noise; 
Of course, we should have sport somehow, 
But we should be good girls and boys. 



156 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



Springfield schools rank high among those of the country: 
in what respects do they excd those of the olden time? In 
many ways. In the matter of buildings the^^ are better housed 
and equipped. They excel in teaching children to put their 
thoughts into writing ; in bringing them near to nature by the 
study of birds and flowers; in giving them the usefulness and 
joy that come from knowledge of drawing and painting; in 

connecting their 
studies with the 
many good books of 
a large city library 
and the collections 
in the Art Museum. 
The kindergarten 
and manual training 
work are new. In 
general, the methods 
^ of teaching have so 
improved that more 
can be done in the 
same time, and the 
principles laid down 
by the great philoso- 
pher, Francis Bacon, 
and by modern ed- 
ucators have been most successfully applied. 

There was, in the schools of Springfield, a boy who, as he 
grew up, became a lover of good books, good pictures and 
good deeds. When he graduated from the high school his 
spoken essay, composed by himself, was on the subject, "The 
Measure of Life." It is remembered that in it he tried to make 
his schoolmates feel the truth of the saying "Man shall not 




" Man Shall Not Live by Bread Alone. 



OLD TIME SCHOOLS 157 

live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out 
of the mouth of God." Thus early did he come to know that 
the best things were to be chosen. He passed through college 
with credit but not long after that his earthly life closed. 
Nevertheless through him several things were made possible 
for Springfield. His name was Eugene Aston. He had a 
refined taste in art and for him is named the "Aston Collection 
of Wood Engravings," in the City Library. 

The art of engraving on w^ood is an interesting one but 
now, unfortunately, becoming obsolete. It is one of the ob- 
jects of this history to show ,by its illustrations what work 
can be done by drawing or engraving with lines as compared 
with the work of photography. In the Aston Collection may 
be found some of the best examples of wood engravings that 
this country has produced. The effect is obtained with a 
sharp tool making lines on the surface of a block usually of 
the wood of the Box tree. As the block sometimes splits, the 
printing is generally done from an electrotype which ingeni- 
ously duplicates in the metal the raised and depressed surfaces 
of the block. 

Springfield has had good engravers on copper and steel, 
like Goldthwaite and Chubbuck, and on wood, like Cleaves 
and Howard. The cuts on pages 68 and 80, from a school 
book of early days are rude indeed, as compared with the 
highly finished work of Cleaves on page 121, or the piece of 
commercial work over-leaf. In this book photography has 
been used in reproducing engravings from old books, as on 
pages 26, 41, 45; but where the lines of the original are deli- 
cate, as on page 134, they cannot be equalled in the copy. 
The cuts on pages 31 and 54 are printed from electrotypes 
of blocks loaned by the publishers of Webster's dictionary, 
a book which has carried the name of Springfield all over 



158 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

the world. Illustrations like those on pages 77 and 115 are 
photographic reductions of pen drawings. The engravings 



A 



on pages 118-119 are reproductions from 
Anderson, the pioneer wood engraver of 
America. 

This cut of a gun by Howard is electro- 
typed from wood. It would be well to take 
a magnifying glass and see by what delicate 
lines the engraver got the mottled effect of 
the French walnut knot of which the butt 
is made. Notice also how the surface of the 
iron parts is made to suggest the original. 
Results of a very different kind and yet 
equally artistic though often less difficult 
can be produced by the use of a very few 
lines, as in the cut of a woman churning, on 
page 45. In both cases careful drawing is 
of the very first importance. Good coloring 
cannot make up for bad drawing. 

It was in the nineteenth century that 
people began to be especially interested in 
the early history of the town. George Bliss, 
Oliver B. Morris, and his son, Henry Morris, 
gave much attention to this subject and the 
latter was the first President of the Con- 
necticut Valley Historical Society. This 
society was organized in 1876, the Centen- 
nial year, when the people of this country 
really began to look back on the nation's 
past. Its volumes of published proceedings 
contain interesting reading about old 
Springfield. 



THE STUDY OF LOCAL HISTORY 159 

The city is also known outside by the historical publica- 
tions of the house of Gurdon Bill, who was the donor of the 
Soldiers' Monument on Court Square, and its successor, the 
C. A. Nichols Company. The publications of this house include 
Holland's ''Life of Lincoln," Abbott's "History of the Civil 
War," "Our First Century," "History for Ready Reference," 
a book much used in school and college, and "Rise and Fall 
of Nations." Green's "History of Springfield," published at 
the time of the quarter millennial of the city, largely as a 
personal contribution of Mr. Nichols to the occasion, is a 
monumental work reflecting credit on author and publisher. 
To it this book is indebted for fourteen plates, like those on 
pages 20, 33, 121. Other books dealing with local history, 
to which the reader is referred for further study, are Morris' 
"Early History of Springfield," Holland's "History of Western 
Massachusetts," Copeland's "History of Hampden County," 
Everts' "History of the Connecticut Valley," EUis and Morris' 
"History of King Philip's War," Burt's "First Century of 
the History of Springfield," King's "Handbook of Springfield," 
Wright's "Indian Deeds of Hampden County," Ward's 
"Springfield in the Spanish-American War," Stebbins' "Wil- 
braham," Bagg's "West Springfield," Chapin's "Inhabitants 
of Old Springfield" and "Old High School," Storrs' "Long- 
meadow," Palmer's "Chicopee Street," and Barrows' "Poets 
and Poetry of Springfield." 

"I have but one lamp," said Patrick Henry, "by which 
my feet are guided and that is the lamp of experience." The 
experience of the past, embodied in history, as it becomes 
better known, helps us better to understand our own time 
and thus to make better the coming times. Interest in histor- 
ical study is sometimes promoted by the drama, as with 
Shakespeare's Henry VIII and Richard III. How this can be 



160 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

done locally was shown by the historical pageant presented 
by the Central High School in 1909, in which costume, music 
and action united in presenting to the imagination a striking 
picture of Colonial days. 

In 1892 occurred the four hundredth anniversary of the 
discovery of America by Columbus. In Springfield the event 
was celebrated by the Hebrews. Rejoicing in this free republic, 
they gathered for religious services; and also listened to an 
address by one of the sons of Springfield, descended from the 
two townsmen who met their death at the foot of Long Hill, 
as described in the fifth chapter. 

As may be inferred from designs of the city seal, manu- 
facturers and trade have long since replaced agriculture as 
the basis of Springfield's prosperity. William Pynchon himself 
was a trader, an honest and successful one, and there have 
been others like him in these respects, some born here and 
others coming from elsewhere. Our mechanics and manu- 
facturers alone would make an interesting study. They are 
the direct representatives of William Pynchon, who dealt 
in native furs and foreign goods and made boards and shingles. 
If they know the history of the town they have before them 
his illustrious example of honorable dealing. 

It was just before the Civil war that Horace Smith and 
Daniel B. Wesson became partners in the manufacture of 
pistols. When the war came on there was great demand for 
pistols and these two men acquired fortunes, for they were 
good mechanics and understood business. They trusted each 
other and others trusted them and wanted their good work. 
They did not keep all their wealth to themselves and their 
families. One of Mr. Smith's ways of doing good was by 
helping young men and women to an education. He enjoyed 
this; and, dying without immediate heirs, gave most of his 



SOME FORMS OF PUBLIC SERVICE 161 

property to charity. The Horace Smith Fund perpetuates 
one of his own favorite ways of doing good. His Hfe may be 
taken as an ilkistrious example of Benevolence, a quality 
of character which is not denied to any, whether rich or poor. 

Daniel B, Wesson was also benevolent, for, although he left 
a numerous posterity, he devoted an important part of his 
estate to the building of two hospitals. For our purposes, 
however, we may take his life as illustrating another moral 
quality. Whatever he made or had made, he determined 
should be made the best it could be, whether it was a pistol 
or a great hospital or the fence about the hospital. On one 
occasion, reading that a pistol of his manufacture had fallen 
from a shelf and, being fired by the fall, killed a woman, he 
lay awake nearly all night studying a device for preventing 
such an accident in the future, and before morning broke he 
had the invention in his mind. He thought whatever was 
worth doing at all was worth doing well and his life may be 
taken as an illustrious example of Perfection of Workmanship, 
a quality of highest import and almost universal application, 
if only in something so humble as the putting a point on a 
pencil or making a loaf of bread. 

A second man, Primus P. Mason, may be mentioned here, 
of the race of Peter Swink of the third chapter, who by industry 
and thrift acquired property and, dying without issue, exe- 
cuted a cherished plan by giving his estate to found a Home 
for Aged Men. 

In early times it was the men who did most of the things 
of which history has to tell; but in later times the women 
have taken a useful part in the public life-of the city. Among 
them was Clara T. Leonard, who gave herself, heart and soul, 
to prison reform in the interest of women. Deeply interested 
in the welfare of the young, she founded the Hampden County 



162 



HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



Children's Aid Society, whose work is still going on. A second 
organization working for the same purpose is the Society of 
St. Vincent de Paul, named for the famous French Philanthro- 
pist. Both exist for the care of homeless and suffering children. 
Another devoted woman was Adelaide A. Calkins, who, with 
Ellen B. Merriam, a graduate of the Springfield High School, 
was the first among the women of the city to fill one of its 
public offices by becoming a member of the school committee. 
She gave twelve years of fruitful service to the cause of educa- 
tion and other years as an official of the Commonwealth towards 
improving the almshouses of the State of Massachusetts. 
United in friendship, Mrs. Leonard and Mrs. Calkins spent 
many years in work for the common good. 




Mm 




Adelaide A. Calkins. 



Clara T. Leonard. 



In 1898 there was war between the United States and 
Spain, growing out of inhumanities practiced by the Spanish 
authorities on the Cubans. The seat of war was the island of 
Cuba. One morning in May the Springfield companies of 
the Second Regiment, composed almost entirely of young 
men, some of them scarcely out of their boyhood, marched 
from the State Arsenal through Main street to the railroad 
station. How much the composition of the citizens had 
changed since the early days when they were almost all of 



THE SPANISH WAR 



163 



English or Scotch stock is shown by the fact that among the 
list of officers and privates occur names that are Irish, Ger- 
man, Scandinavian, French, Italian and Hebrew. 

The regiment camped in Framingham and soon was on its 
way to Florida, whence it was to embark. Merrily did the 
soldiers sing 



"Tramp, tramp, tramp the boys are marching; 
Cheer up, Cuba, we will come," 




but once on Cuban soil they 
were face to face with the 
horrors of war. Young 
Arthur Packard, who first 
enlisted at fifteen, was killed 
at the battle of El Caney. 
Thomas Boon, having been 
transferred to the signal 
corps, was sent up in a 
war balloon for observa- 
tions on the enemy at the 
siege of Santiago. The 
balloon, having been struck at a great height by fragments 
of a shell, fell, and young Boon was caught in a tree and 
entangled with its anchor and was afterwards dropped in 
the water of a creek. He received severe injuries which proved 
fatal after his return to Springfield. 

There were others in these companies who met their deaths 
on the battlefield or at the hands of exposure and disease, 
including Henry Macdonald, chief of the city's police. They 
died for the freedom of Cuba and their names are on the monu- 
ment at the foot of Round Hill. There was an old saying of 



^tJBA U©^^ 



Arthur H. Packard. 



164 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 

the Romans, " Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori,'" — "It is 
sweet and fitting to die for one's country." These went at the 
call of their country to die for the people of another land and 
their names and deeds are cherished, together with the names 
and deeds of those who fell in the making and the saving of 
this nation. Equally honored, however, although not mourned, 
are those who returned to live honorable lives under the 
banner of peace. 

In the year 1800 the population of Springfield was 2250; 
in 1900 it was 62,059. A large part of the latter increase had, 
of course, been due to immigration from abroad. The large 
families of the older stock had become the exception and now 
came people from Sweden, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Greece, 
Armenia and China. There had been an increasing Irish and 
German element from earlier times. There were people of 
French descent from Canada but not in any number from 
France itself; nor from Spain, Portugal or Japan; but there 
were Hebrews from many countries. These all have come, 
giving up their old allegiance, to take the name American, 
to defend the Constitution and to love and honor the Stars 
and Stripes. Like the ancient settlers of Pynchon's day, they 
have had to give up many old ways and to learn what, for 
this country, are better ones. Like the earlier settlers it is 
for them gradually to lose sight of old customs, the old lan- 
guage and the old nationality in the fusion of peoples in the 
new land. "Americanism," as President Roosevelt has said, 
"is a question of principle, of purpose, of idealism, of character; 
and not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent." 

The one hundredth anniversary of the settlement was the 
occasion of a "Century Sermon," by Rev. Robert Breck and 
the two hundredth anniversary of an historical address by 
Judge Oliver B. Morris. A feature of the two hundred and 



THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 165 

fiftieth anniversary was a procession illustrating the historical 
events and the industries of the city. The address was by 
Judge Henry Morris. In 1911 much attention was given to 
local history in the schools and the day commemorating the 
two hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary was ushered in 
with a proclamation by criers and the public exercises included 
addresses, a poem, the singing of songs of the Civil War, and 
in the schools, of the anniversary hymn. A loan exhibition 
brought together many things ancient and interesting. 

The change to a new century was observed. The last 
century of the present era was the second millenium about 
to begin, called the twentieth century. The people of Spring- 
field felt the importance of the event. As the hour drew on 
to midnight, some gathered in their places of worship, others 
were upon the streets or awaiting in their homes the next 
stroke of the clock. The bells of the city rang out all together, 
tolling in slow and measured strokes the death of the old 
century. When the public clocks began to strike the hour of 
twelve, the bells changed to joyful notes of greeting for the 
century just beginning, and the great guns on Armory Square 
began to thunder their salute. This was in the two hundred 
and sixty-fifth year of the history of Springfield and the one 
hundred and twenty-fifth year of the independence of the 
United States, 




166 HISTORY OF SPRINGFIELD 



ANNIVERSARY HYMN 

Sung May 25, 1886 
At the 250th Anniversary of the City of Springfield 

Tune: "Portuguese Hymn." 

O God of our fathers ! Their Guide and their Shield, 
Who marked out Thy pathway through forest and field. 
We stand where they stood, and with anthems of praise 
Acknowledge Thy goodness, O Ancient of Days ! 

Thou leddest Thy people of old like a flock; 
They trusted in Thee as their Sheltering Rock; 
The centuries pass, — Thou art ever the same, 
And children of children still trust in Thy name. 

'Twas here in the wilderness, silent, untamed. 
The gospel of freedom and grace they proclaimed, — 
The gospel of home, of the school, of the plow, — 
And this City of Homes is their monument now. 

O God of our fathers ! By river and wood 
Where Pynchon and Holyoke and Chapin abode. 
Our heritage blossoms with glory and praise, 
To Thee, our Defender, O Ancient of Days! 

—Dyer, 1839-1896 



APPENDIX 



168 



APPENDIX 



. /f^ 















V"'^ ' "^' 






fee ir/7 ■^"***^*/l.' *vi'<^ 3( i' • '-■ 






^^^^ 



<if..;M«^ 



-2^^ 



■^■\ 



<>%. 



,..^^3^>.>.r/..--^4Ji<.i) 



Signatures to the agreement of the Indians with the eight original settlers of Springfield 



FACSIMILE OF DEED 

BETWEEN 

WILLIAM PYNCHON AND THE INDIANS 




<^Mj ;^/«n^-^^^ zf^^, '^3<^ 



p^mpcnarn- >B i't-^-c^^* »<>e ^-U>*^a^ ^u^ ctcrv Jfemr^ J^^Y/f 8,/L/l^ 



•^ . . . . .-v,^ ny i^jiLi. ^.„ ^'.j. __^ „'l^ P^ l>.\^n£ 




iU A'*^ 






, ., ft*a*^^ of- 







Oi.D Indian Deed. 



OUR FIRST NEWS OF THE BATTLE OF 
LEXINGTON 

Watertown 

Wednesday morning 10 o'clock. 

"To all the friends of American Liberty be it known that 
this morning before break of day a Brigade consisting of about 
1000 or 1200 men landed at Phips' Farm at Cambridge and 
marched to Lexington where they found a company of our 
Colony Militia in arms upon whom they fired without any 
provocation and killed six and wounded four others by an ex- 
press this moment from Boston we find another Brigade are 
now on their march from Boston supposed to be about 1000. 
The bearer Mr. Isaac Bissell charged to alarm the country 
quite to Connecticut and all persons are desired to furnish him 
with such horses as they may be needed. 

I have spoke with several persons who have seen the dead 
and wounded. Pray let the Delegates from this Colony to 
Connecticut see this 

they know 

J. Palmer 

one of the Com. of S — y 

Col. Foster is one of the Delegates." 




'Spirit of 1917" 



THE AMERICAN CREED 

(National Society Sons of American Revolution) 

"I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, 
for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed; a democracy in 
a republic; sovereign nation of many sovereign States; a perfect Union, one and inseparable, 
established upon those principles of freedom, erjuality, justice, and humanity for which American 
patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes. 

"I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it; to support its Constitution; to 
obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies." 

Note — The original of the above illustration, by Norman'Rockwell, hangs in the Banking Room 
of the Third National Bank as a tribute to the young men who served in the World War. 



SPRINGFIELD IN THE WORLD WAR 

The world war began August 2, 1914, and the armistice 
was signed November 11, 1918. Springfield contributed its 
part by furnishing men, money and materials necessary to 
conduct the plans of our government to a successful end. 

The city, during this period, raised thousands of dollars 
by successful drives known as the Red Cross drive, the Triangle 
drive, the Knights of Columbus drive. Hospital drive. War 
Chest drive, Liberty Bond drive. Victory drive and Library 
drive. (Citizens contributed 40,000 books.) During these 
several drives, soldiers who had been wounded in the war, 
came from England, France, Italy, Canada and Belgium, to 
Springfield and other cities to relate their experiences in battle 
and to urge people to make every sacrifice to bring the war to 
a close. 

Women and girls contributed their quota by working in- 
defatigably crocheting, knitting and sewing, at home, in halls, 
on street cars, and in places of amusement. 

The 104th regiment, which was known before the war as 
the 2nd Massachusetts regiment, under command of Col. 
William C. Hayes, left Springfield September 13, 1917, with 
about 1,200 men. On reaching France at a time when the 
crisis was near, this regiment was placed in the thickest of the 
fight and experienced some of the worst fighting which ever 
fell to the lot of soldiers of any period in history. Springfield 
gave its farewell to these men, and on their return, April 28, 
1919, received and did them honor. The regiment lost during 
this sad experience about 800 men. France honored this regi- 
ment by decorating it on the field of battle, and it was the only 



174 APPENDIX 

regiment from the United States so decorated. The ancestors 
of Gen. Clarence R. Edwards, the commander of the 26th 
division, from New England, known as the "Yankee Division" 
lived in Springfield on Chestnut street, — Edwards street being 
part of the Edwards home lot. 

During the war the United States armory and the Water- 
shops, where rifles were made for our army, were strictly 
guarded, as were the buildings of the Eastern States Exposi- 
tion in West Springfield, which were used by the government 
for the storing and shipping of war material, and our Technical 
High School building on Elliot street which was used during 
the summer for instructing soldiers in technical work and drill. 

Cardinal Mercier, the primate of Belgium, a war hero, 
visited Springfield October 5 and 6, 1919. 

The French government sent thirty-three young girls to 
this city, at the close of the war, to be instructed in our Com- 
mercial High School. Many of them had practical experience 
in our local business offices before returning to France. 

WORLD WAR ROLL OF HONOR WAS REPRESENTED IN 
THE HIGH SCHOOLS OF SPRINGFIELD AS FOLLOWS: 

Central 505 Commercial 192 

Technical 625 Parochial 145 



HISTORICAL AND LITERARY 
LANDMARKS OF SPRINGFIELD 

Early settlers of Springfield lived on or near the present Early 
Main street. Henry Smith, one of the three first selectmen 
and a son-in-law of William Pynchon, had his home at the 
corner of Main and Bridge streets. Miles Morgan, a tithing 
master in the First church, lived on the south side of Ferry 
lane, the present Cypress street. (A statue of Mr. Morgan by 
J. S. Hartley stands on Court Square), The son of William 
Pynchon, John Pynchon, the strong business man of pioneer 
days, lived at the corner of Main and Fort streets. His house 
was used as a fort during the Indian attack on Springfield in 
1675. It remained standing until 1831. A reproduction of it 
appears on the city seal. 

The first burying ground, "God's acre," was back of theTheRrst 
First church at the foot of Elm street. The stones marking Ground 
the resting places of early settlers were removed when the 
tracks of the new New York, New Haven, and Hartford Rail- 
road were laid in 1848. They are now arranged in three rows 
near the Pine street entrance of the Peabody Cemetery. 

The Bay Path, a name which Holland has immortalized The Bay 

Path 

by making it the title of an historical novel whose scene is laid 
in Springfield, is supposed to represent the route, at first a 
mere trail, by which the early settlers travelled to and from 
Boston. 

All Saints' Church, an Episcopal- house of worship on An^samts- 
Oakland street, is modeled after a church of the same name in 
Springfield, England, where William Pynchon worshipped. 

The First Church on Court Square was completed in 1819 chur^h^* 



The 

Town 

Brook 



176 APPENDIX 

and is the fourth building in its history. The architect was 
Isaac Damon who also built the toll bridge. The "rooster" 
weathervane was brought over from England about 1750. 
The first church building was finished in 1645. 

Ferry Ferry lane, the present Cypress street, was the northern 

one of the three lanes leading from the "town street" (Main 
street) to the river. Here travelers took the ferry across the 
river to Woronoco. At the middle, or "Meeting house lane" 
(Elm street) and at the southern one (York street) ferries took 
townspeople to the opposite meadows. Washington landed 
at the foot of Ferry lane on his visit to Springfield. 

The Town Brook or Garden Brook is a stream made by 
the springs with which Armory hill abounds. It formerly ran 
on the surface and spread out over the plain, making a marshy 
tract between Dwight and Main streets known as the "Has- 
socky marsh". In order to affect a passage across this marsh 
a "causeway" or corduroy road, resting on logs and two rods 
wide, was built. The brook divided at Worthington street, 
part flowing north and the other south into the Connecticut 
River. 

?i<^e °/ , A marker on the grounds of the St. Vincent Home on Long 

the Stock- ° 

vtfiage Hill Street, opposite Spruceland Avenue, indicates the site of 
the stockaded village of the Agawam Indians and their fort, 
both of which were vacated when they burned Springfield in 
1675. 

Cortev A marker at the corner of Mill and South Main streets, 

is near the spot where the Indians, during King PhiHp's war, 
on the 5th of October, 1675, killed Lieut. Thomas Cooper, the 
contractor under whose direction the first building of the First 
Church organization was built, and Constable Thomas Miller. 



of Mill 
and South 
Main 
Streets 



APPENDIX 177 

These two men had started out together to meet and treat with 
the Indians who were coming to attack the town. 

The "Boston stone" on Benton Park near Federal Street The "Boston 
was erected in 1763 "for the benefit of travellers" by Joseph 
Wait, a Brookfield merchant who had lost his way in a snow- 
storm. Masonic symbols are carved upon it and it bears the 
marks of the bullets fired during Shays' rebellion. 

The boulder on Benton park is a memento to the following The Boulder 

on Benton 

event as inscribed on the stone : * ' This tablet marks the battle P^^^k 
place of Shays' rebellion, January 25, 1787." Shays' rebellion 
was an uprising due to discontent with existing conditions 
following the Revolutionary war. It was led by Daniel Shays 
of Pelham who raised a force of 2,000 men. 

Court Square, opened in 1819, is the central common of Court 

. (-TT1A-1 Square 

the City. It was made over to the county of Hampden, April 
14, 1821, by five well known citizens "In order", as they said, 
' ' that there may be an open square or yard for the use of the 
inhabitants of the county near the courthouse, divers persons 
have, at a great expense, purchased this land." The site was 
once occupied by Parsons tavern, the old inn where Washington 
stayed on his way to Cambridge. 

The toll bridge was built in 1816 by Capt. Isaac Damon TheToii 

BridffG 

who was the architect of the First Church. Tolls were taken 
until 1872. 

The first town hall was built in 1828 on the corner of State ^he First 

Town Hall 

and Market streets. It is now in use as a business block. A 
city hall on west Court Street succeeded this and the present 
municipal group is its successor. 

John Brown, famous in connection with the Civil War, John Brown 
conducted a business in Springfield as a wool merchant from 
1846 to 1849. His warehouse was on the northwest corner of 



178 APPENDIX 

Main and Lyman streets. He lived at 26 and 43 Franklin 
Street and on Gray's Avenue. The house, No. 43 Franklin 
Street, was later moved to Greenwood Street and is still stand- 
ing. He is said to have maintained a station of the "Under- 
ground railroad" here. 

Scou Mrs. C. C. Chaffee, owner of Dred Scott, who figured in 

the Missouri Compromise, once lived at 154 Chestnut Street. 

The Day 'p]-^g Dscy house in West Springfield, a quaint brick structure 

at the right of the Common, was built in 1754 by Joseph Day 
and occupied by Days for nearly 150 years. The front door 
shows marks said to have been made by the tomahawks of 
the Indians. Daniel Shays took formal possession of the house 
in 1787. The Hessians from Burgoyne's army encamped in 
front of the house on the Common in 1777. Many unauthentic 
legends center about the place. It is now in the possession of 
the Ramapogue Historical Society and is used as a museum of 
New England antiquities. 

First Roman j^ 1835 the Catholics assembled for their first mass, which 

Catholics 

in Springfield ^g^g )^q\(^ j^ a privatc house near the corner of Mill and Dickin- 
son streets. A large Catholic population now worships in 
numerous churches, and Springfield is the home of the Bishop. 

Hon. George Hon. Gcorgc Ashmuu, a friend of Daniel Webster's, pre- 

Asbmun ° ^ 

sided at the Republican Convention which nominated Abraham 
Lincoln, 1860. His home was at the northeast corner of Mul- 
berry and School streets. 
J.G.Holland J Q Hollaud, author of "The Bay Path", spent the years 
of his literary career in Springfield. A part of the time he was 
on the editorial staff of the Springfield Republican. He wrote 
"Kathrina" at Bright wood, a name he gave his home in the 
north end of the city, which was afterwards applied to the 
whole section. When living at 115 High street, he wrote 



APPENDIX 179 

"Bittersweet". The monument which marks his grave in 
the Peabody cemetery bears a bronze portrait reUef by 
St. Gaudens. 

George Bancroft, the historian, once Uved at 49 Chestnut george^^ 
Street. It was later the home of a consul general of Paris and 
of Lieut. Governor W. H. Haile. Still later it became the 
residence of George Walter Vincent Smith, the donor of the 
collection in the Art Museum. 

Tames McNeill Whistler, an artist of world wide fame, James 

•J . 1 r McNeill 

when a boy of five lived on Chestnut Street, just south of whistier 
Mattoon Street. While he was still a small boy his father. 
Major Whistler, was called to Russia by the Czar to assist in 
building railroads. His portrait of his mother is one of the 
famous paintings of the world. 

Jenny Lind, the "Swedish nightingale," gave a concert inJenny 
the First Church, July 1, 1851. Tickets were $4.00, $5.00, '° • 
and $6.00, and the church was crowded to the doors. She 
remained in the city nearly a week at the home of Jeremy 
Warriner, 43 Howard Street, in rooms newly furnished for her 
use. On July 4th, between five and six hundred children, some 
of whom were from nearby towns, headed by a band marched 
to the front of the Warriner home. Jenny Lind "dressed in a 
morning robe of heavy pink and white stripe took her seat 
upon the balcony of the house, receiving graciously the 
bouquets which the children threw her, and greeting with 
smiles of delight the songs which they sang to her." 

The Springfield Republican is the oldest newspaper now l^^^ij^gg^ij 
pubUshed in the city. It had its beginning -as a weekly paper Republican 
in 1824 with 250 subscribers, and owed its existence to Samuel 
Bowles. His son, grandson, and great grand nephew succeeded 
him as editors. The daily edition was established in 1844. 



180 APPENDIX 

Sctionary Wcbstcr's Dictionary is a Connecticut Valley product. 
The first edition, which appeared in 1828, was edited by Noah 
Webster, who spent twenty years in its preparation while 
living in Hartford, New Haven, and Amherst. This edition 
consisted of 2,500 copies and was published in Hartford. At 
Noah Webster's death in 1843, G. and C. Merriam, of Spring- 
field, purchased the work, and the numerous editions, cul- 
minating in "The New International," which have since 
appeared, have been published by their successors, the G. 
and C. Merriam Co. 



A FEW IMPORTANT INSTITUTIONS IN 
SPRINGFIELD 

The City Library opened the doors of its present building city 
(the second in its histoid) in January, 1912, with a collection 
of 170,000 books. The number of books is rapidly doubling, 
and doubtless in the not distant future will reach the capacity 
of the building, 500,000 volumes. The cost was $355,000 of 
which $155,000 was given by citizens, the remainder by Andrew 
Carnegie. The architect was Edward L. Tilton. The library 
is governed by a corporation of which the Mayor, the President 
of the Common Council, and the Superintendent of Schools 
are members ex-of!icio. The city appropriates a sum annually 
for its use and large endowments have been made by citizens. 
It ranks very high among libraries in the country for its use- 
fulness. It has three branch libraries — at Indian Orchard, at 
Forest Park, and at Memorial Square, and has over 400 dis- 
tributing stations in such places as schools, fire stations, in- 
dustrial plants, etc. 

The City Library Association was organized in 1857. 
Previous to that the Young Men's Institute had purchased books 
and lent them to their friends. These they presented to the 
Association as the nucleus of the new library. In 1859 a room 
was secured in the City Hall, and in 1861 a librarian was 
appointed, Dr. William Rice, who held the position thirty-six 
years. Under his administration the first building was erected 
in 1871 at a cost of $100,000 contributed by citizens. In 1885 
the library was made free — up to that time there was a fee of 
$1.00 a year. 



182 



APPENDIX 



Art 
Museum 



Museum 
of Natural 
History 



Central 

High 

School 



The Art Museum contains a very unusual collection of 
works of art including paintings, sculpture, arms and armor, 
antique furniture, keramics, glass, cloisonne enamels, carved 
jade, ivories and wood, bronzes, silver, gold lacquers, illumi- 
nated missals, oriental rugs, laces, embroideries, textiles, etc., 
the gift of George Walter Vincent Smith who has spent a life- 
time in gathering the collection. In the same building is a 
collection of sculpture, purchased frofn funds left by Horace 
Smith of the firm Smith & Wesson. The building was completed 
in 1895 and the architects were Ren wick, Aspinwall and Ren- 
wick and Walter T. Owen. The money was raised by private 
subscription. 

The Museum of Natural History, which began its existence 
in the library rooms in 1859, entered its present building 
October 16, 1899. Gardner, Pyne and Gardner, were the archi- 
tects, and it represents a cost of $30,000. The collections, which 
cover a wide range, were gifts, most of them from citizens. 
The museum not only serves as a place for exhibit, but is 
active in conducting clubs, classes, and lecture courses. It 
also has a collection of books on natural science, contributed 
and constantly, added to by the alumnae of the Howard School. 
It is called the Catharine L. Howard Library in memory of the 
founder of the school. 

The Central High School was completed in 1898. At that 
time its seating capacity of 800 was sufficient to house the 
entire high school. The architects were Hart well and Rich- 
ardson. The first high school was held at 43 to 47 School 
Street, the second one was built on Elm Street on the site of 
the court house in 1841, the third, in 1849, on the site of the 
Administration building. A fourth one, west of the present 
one, was erected in 1874. The enrollment in 1852 when 



APPENDIX 183 

Springfield was made a city was 2,270. In 1920 it had about 
25,000 inhabitants. 

The High School of Commerce was organized in 1898 in High school 

. of Commerce 

the Central High School with two instructors. In 1906 it was 
transferred to the Technical High School, and in 1916 to the 
present building with an enrollment that year of 1058 pupils. 
The cost of the building was $1,000,000, and the architects 
were Kirkham and Parlett. Its seating capacity is 1,400. 

The Technical High School entered its present building H^g^"'*"*' 
on Elliot Street in 1906. The beginnings of the school were in ®°^°°' 
1898, with 18 pupils in a building known as the Mechanic Arts 
School, on the site of the Hendee Manufacturing Co. 

The Vocational School on Spring Street was completed in vocational 

School 

1921 with a capacity of 350 pupils. It has class and drawing 
rooms, and the appliances for teaching such trades as machin- 
ists, wood working, electricity, automobile repairing, sheet 
metal working, printing, etc. 

The American International College at 963 State Street, American 

International 

founded in Lowell in 1885, began its life in Springfield in 1889 coiiege 
as the French Protestant College. In 1894 the name was 
changed to the French American College, and in 1905 it took 
the present name. Its students are chiefly young men and 
women from other lands. Its teaching emphasizes citizenship 
and service. 

The International Young Men's Christian Association young^Men^i 
College was founded in 1885. The present site on the shore of Associitk)n 
Massasoit Lake was secured in 1891. In addition to the 
^academic course, stress is laid on athletics. Graduates of the 
college conduct Young Men's Christian Associations, and are 
physical directors all over the world. 

The Springfield Boys' Club building, corner Chestnut and B^cfib 



184 



APPENDIX 



Young 
Men's 
Christian 
Association 



Young 
Women's 
Christian 
Association 



United 
States 
Armory 



Little River 

and 

Ludlow 

water 

System 



Forces t Park 



Ferry streets, was dedicated December 14, 1910. The work 
of the ckib is chiefly social and educational in its character. 

The Young Men's Christian Association was established 
in Springfield in 1852, the third of its kind in the United States. 
Its present building was occupied in 1916. 

The Young Women's Christian Association was organized 
in 1870. The present building was completed in 1910. 

The United States Armory which, more than by any other 
feature within her boundaries, makes Springfield known to the 
outside world, was established by an act of Congress in April, 
1794. It includes not only the enclosures on Armory hill but 
the shops on Mill River, known as the " Watershops. " There 
is at all times a steady manufacture of firearms and during the 
successive wars in which the United States has been engaged, 
the shops have run day and night. The Arsenal has been 
immortalized through Longfellow's poem "The Arsenal". It 
was built in 1846 and is modeled after the East India house 
in London. 

Little River water system, comprising a watershed of 48 
square miles of hills and valleys, with its farthest point about 
30 miles from the city, furnishes the water supply for Spring- 
field. Six different storage units furnish a capacity of almost 
three billion gallons sufficient for a population of nearly 
300,000 people. The system was installed in 1910. The Ludlow 
reservoir supplied the water from 1875 to this date. Earlier 
than this the supply was furnished through the enterprise of 
private individuals, one of whom, Charles Stearns, the donor 
of Stearns Park, laid eight miles of log pipes through various » 
streets. 

Forest Park had its beginning in 1884 when a tract of 65 
acres was presented to the city by O. H. Greenleaf. Numerous 



APPENDIX 185 

small gifts with 178 acres from E. H. Barney, 21 acres from 
R. C. Born and 103 acres from J as. B. Bnrbank together with 
a few purchases have augmented the park until it now (1920) 
contains 729 acres. In the park Porter Lake of about 40 acres 
has been constructed, utilizing a bequest from Sherman D. 
Porter. Springfield's park system also includes Van Horn 
park of 83 acres, ten other parks of from one to seven acres 
and 46 other plots of less than one acre each. Connected with 
the park administration are three large playgrounds embracing 
17 acres, the gift of Nathan D. Bill, 14 others (school grounds) 
used as summer playgrounds, two swimming pools and six 
social centers during the winter. 

NOTED WORKS OF ART IN SPRINGFIELD 

Linden Hall, 284 State Street, is a fine example of past '^i^^^^f""^^^ 
colonial architecture. It was built in 1811 by Asher Benjamin, 
a noted architect of the time, for Col. James Byers for whom 
Byers Street was named. It was for a short time the residence 
of Chester Harding, a portrait painter of national reputation 
whose work is represented in this city by portraits on the walls 
of the City Library. Linden Hall, named from the linden 
trees near it, is often called the "Alexander place", from a 
prominent Springfield family which has occupied it for many 
years. 

The Church of Unity on State Street, opposite the library, ^d^-j,^'"'*' 
is a fine example of the work of H. H. Richardson. Other L°parge 
buildings in this city designed by him are the North Church. "^^^"^ 
and the Hampden County court house. The Church of the 
Unity contains stained glass windows by Low, LaFarge, 
Tiffany and others. 

The municipal group is probably Springfield's most dis- group"^*' 



186 



APPENDIX 



tinctive feature. Leading architects competed for the design 
and Pell and Corbett were chosen. It was completed in 1913 
at a cost of nearly two millions of dollars. The auditorium 
seats 4,000 people, and because of its remarkable acoustic 
properties attracts the best musical talent in the country. 
The administration building contains the chambers of the 
city government and its various offices. The campanile is 
300 feet high, and houses an electrically illuminated clock 
which can be read two miles away, and a chime of twelve bells. 
The bronze doors, commemorating historical events, were 
modeled by Gail Sherman Corbett. 

The pulpit at Christ Church and the rood screen at Church 
of the Holy Family were carved by Kirchmayer, a famous 
wood carver from Oberammergau. In Christ Church chapel 
is a stained glass window designed by LaFarge. 

The Puritan, a bronze statue on Merrick Park, was modeled 
by St. Gaudens in memory of Deacon Samuel Chapin, one of 
the early settlers of Springfield. 

The McKinley monument on the north side of the municipal 
building is the work of Philip Martiny. 

The bronze tablet bearing a portrait relief of Samuel 
Bowles, on the Republican building at the corner of Main 
Street and Harrison Avenue, is the work of Daniel Chester 
French. 

Pauiconoyer j^ Trinity Church is a mural painting "Beside the Still 

Waters" by Paul Conoyer. 
Robert Reid fhe mural painting "Light of Education" in the Central 

High School was the work of Robert Reid. 



Kirchmayer 
LaFarge 



Puritan 

by 

St. Gaudens 



McKinley 
monument 
by Philip 
Martiny 

Daniel 

Chester 

French 



INDEX 



Adams, John 97 

Administration Building 182 

Agawam 9, 48, 52, 88, 89, 

Agawam Meadows 15, 25 

Agawam River. . .3, 22, 23, 91, 99, 121 
Agawams . 67, 72, 74, 75, 77, 79, 82, 176 

Albany 53, 125 

Alexander 61 

Alexander Place 185 

All Saints' Church 175 

American Creed 172 

American International College. . . 183 

Amherst 105, 110, 180 

Amherst College 8 

Anderson A 158 

Anniversary Hymn 166 

Apaches 86 

Arctic Regions 9 

Armenia 164 

Armory 12, 13, 15, IS, 98, 109 

110, 126, 127, 141, 143, 150, 174, 184 

Armory Hill 13, 127, 176, 184 

Arsenal 18, 128 

Alt Museum 156, 179, 182 

Ashconunsuck 91 

Ashmun, George 14, 141, 178 

Aston, Eugene 157 

Aston collection of Wood Engravings 

157 

"At Home in Italy" 133 

Audubon John J 125 

Avon Place 5, 91 

B 

Ball, Francis 30 

Bancroft George 179 

"Bamett. The" 123 

Barney, E. H 185 

Barrow, Sam 60 

"Bav Pa;th, The". . . .51, 144, 175, 178 

Bav'Road 17, 91, 95, 110 

Bear Hole 92, 120 

Bedcrtha, Blanche 55 



Bedortha, Reice 34 

Beers, Captain 67, 68 

Beers Mountain 68 

Belgium 173, 174 

Benton Park 11, 110, 177 

Berkshire County . . 106, 109, 112, 115 

Berkshire Hills 32 

"Beside the Still Waters" 186 

Bianciardi, Elizabeth 133 

Bible 22 

Bill, Gurdon 159 

Bill, Nathan D 185 

Bircham's Bend 91 

Bissell, Isaac 171 

"Bittersweet" 179 

"Black Swan" 148 

Blanchard, Thomas 119 

Blandford 7,8 

Bliss, George 158 

Bliss, Jedediah 88 

Bliss Family 88 

Block Brook 91 

Bloody Brook 69 

Boon, Thomas 163 

Born, R. C 185 

Boston 3, 24, 26, 

46, 79, 81, 95, 99, 124, 125, 153, 171, 175 

Boston harbor 48 

"Boston stone" 177 

Bowles, Samuel 144, 179, 186 

Brainerd, David 60 

Brewer, Dr. Chauncey 108 

Bridge St 175 

Brightwood 16, 178 

British army 98 

British Province 135 

Brookfield 65, 67, 74, 92, 101 

Brown, John . . . 136, 138, 140, 142, 177 

Brush Hill 11 

Bunker Hill 95, 96 

Burbank, Jas. B 185 

Burgoyne, General 98, 101, 178 

Burt, Henry 42 

Byers, Col. James 185 

Byers St 185 



188 



INDEX 



C 

Calkins, Adelaide A 162 

Cambridge 94, 95, 177 

Canada 92, 135, 164, 173 

Card Factory Pond 5 

Carnegie, Andrew 181 

"Cataract, The" 148 

Catholics, 178 

"Causeway" 176 

Cave Hole 17 

Cayuga 3 

Central High School, 160, 182, 183, 186 

Century Magazine 144 

Chaffee, Mrs. C. C 178 

Chapin, Samuel 

34, 41, 42, 51, 52, 72, 75, 144, 186 

Chapin Family 88 

Charles, King 29, 115 

Charlestown 95 

Chestnut St. . 16, 25, 174, 178, 179, 183 

Chicago Convention 141 

Chicopee 

3, 38, 53, 88, 90, 91, 109, 110, 114 

Chicopee Bridge 15, 109 

Chicopee Falls 91 

Chicopee River 12,91 

China 13, 164 

Christ Church 15, 186 

Chubbuck,- Thomas 157 

Church, Capt. Benjaman .... 64, 80, 86 

City Guards 139 

City Hall 133 

City Library 125, 157, 181, 185 

Civil War 
110, 128, 138, 139, 143, 144, 160, 177 

Cleaves 157 

Cobb, Judge David 106 

Colony Militia 171 

Columbus, Christopher 160 

Concord 96 

Congregational Library, Boston .... 49 
7, 18, 21, 64, 85, 180 
Connecticut 

3, 22, 35, 47, 48, 55, 59, 63, 64, 71, 
74, 79, 82, 89, 91, 92, 115, 121, 171 

Connecticut Indians 74 

Connecticut River 7, 9, 12, 25, 84, 176 

Connecticut Valley 

Conn. Valley Historical Society, 

58, 180 
Connecticut, Seal of 133 



Conoyer, Paul 186 

Constitution 112, 113, 143 

Continental Army 94 

Continental Congress 97 

Cooley "Haystack Colonel" 112 

Cooper, Thomas 

32, 34, 42, 46, 51, 65, 66, 75, 76, 78, 176 

Corbett, Gail Sherman 186 

Cornell St 16 

Court house 7, 94, 105, 107, 108 

Court Square 

10, 32, 44, 53, 57, 148, 175, 177 

Court St 177 

Crescent Hill 16, 57 

Crowfoot Brook 91 

Cuba 163 

Cypress St 26, 38, 78, 94, 175, 176 

D 

Damon, Isaac 176, 177 

Day, Joseph 178 

Day, Capt. Luke. . . 106, 107, 109, 111 

Day, Sarah 34 

Dav, Thomas 34 

Day House 119, 178 

Deerfield 66, 68, 81, 92 

Denton, Daniel 37, 38 

Dickens, Charles 124 

Dickinson 178 

Dorchester, Anthony 35 

Douglas, Frederick 144 

Dunbar, Battle of 30 

Dutch 48 

Dwight, President Timothy 120 

Dwight St 15, 146, 167 

E 

"Eagle, the" 149 

East India House 184 

East Longmeadow 7, 17, 88 

Eastern States Exposition 174 

Edwards, Mr 55 

Edwards, Gen. Clarence R 174 

"Edwards, Grandpa" 139 

El Caney 163 

Eliot, John 60. 79 

Elliot vSt 174, 183 

Elm St 25, 33, 123, 175 

Elmer, Rufus 13S 

Elv 106 

Erifield 87 



INDEX 



189 



England 22, 24, 

26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 52, 92, 173, 175, 176 

English 3, 22, 

67, 71, 84, 86, 87, 92, 99, 115, 126, 163 

English money 32 

Entry Dingle 91 

Essex Institute 46 



Falls fight 86 

Farrar, Eliza 144 

Federal Barracks 109 

Federal St 177 

Ferry Lane 38, 78, 94, 175, 176 

Ferry St 107, 184 

Firemen's muster 149 

First Church 58, 149, 175, 176, 177, 179 

Fitch Farm 17 

Five Mile Pond 6, 110 

Flagg's Hillock 17 

Forest Park . . 17, 82, 91, 140, 181, 184 

Fort Pleasant Ave 57 

Fort St 46, 175 

Foster, Col 171 

Fourth of July 139 

Framingham 163 

France 110, 173 

Franklin, Benjamin 115 

Franklin St 136, 137, 178 

French, Daniel Chester 186 

French 164, 174 

French American College 183 

French peddler 93, 125 

French Protestant College 183 

Fuller, Bertha B 134, 135 



Gage, Gen 135 

Garden Brook 4, 176 

Gardner, Clare 58 

Gardner, Pyne & Gardner 182 

General Court 46, 49, 57, 132 

George the Third 99 

Germans 149, 163, 164 

Geronimo 86 

Gerrish Park 140 

Gilbert, John 83, 84, 85, 92 

"God's Acre" 175 

Goldthwaite, J. H 157 

Goose Pond 6 

Granby 140 



Grant, Gen. U. S 142, 143 

Gray's Avenue 178 

Great Glacier 9, 10 

Great River 25 

Great Spirit 89 

Greece 164 

Green, Mason A 75 

Green Mountains 12 

Greenfield 7 

Greenleaf, O. H 184 

Greenwood St 178 

H 

Hadley 66. 71, 72, 74, 75, 81, 87 

Haile, W. H 179 

Hale, James W 93 

"Hale Fund " 93 

Hall of Records 7, 18 

Hampden, John 115 

Hampden 88 

Hampden County 7, 177 

Hampden County Children's Aid 

Society 162 

Hampden County Court House . . . 185 

Hampden House 148 

Hampden Road 90 

Hampshire County 106, 112, 115 

Harding, Chester 185 

Harrison Ave 186 

Hartford H, 47, 

48, 51, 60, 72, 74, 82, 93, 124, 125, 180 

Hartley, J. S 175 

Hartwell & Richardson 182 

Hatfield 66 

Hayes, Col. Wm. C 173 

"Haystack Colonel, The" 112 

Hebrews 160, 163 

Hendee Mfg. Co 183 

Hesse Cassel 99 

Hessians 99, 178 

High School 5, 162, 182 

" 2d 182 

" 3d 182 

" 4th 182 

High School of Commerce 185 

High School Portfolio •. . 154 

High St. . : 178 

Higher Brook 91 

"Hillers" 127 

Hinsdale 83 

Hitchcock, Nathaniel 88 



190 



INDEX 



Hogpen Dingle 90 

Holland, Josiah Gilbert 51, 144, 175, 178 

Holy Family, Church of the 186 

Holyoke, Elizur 51, 85 

Holyoke, Capt. Samuel. 51, 84, 86, 125 

Holyoke 7, 85, 88 

Holyoke City Hall 12, 53 

Holyoke, Mt 9, 18 

Homestead, The 153 

Hope, Mt 64 

Horse Guards 139 

Hospital Drive 173 

Howard 158 

Howard, Bezaleel "Parson" 120 

Howard, Catherine L 182 

Howard School 182 

Howard St 136, 179 

Hudson River 46, 79, 86 

Hudson Valley 84 

Hungary 164 

I 

Indian Orchard .... 11, 79, 91, 98, 181 
Indians. .3, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 
46, 47, 48, 67, 75, 76, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84, 
85, 86, 87, 89, 91, 92, 131, 150, 175, 

177, 178 
International Y.M.C.A. College. . .183 

Irish 163, 164 

Irving, Washington 94 

Island Pond 6 

Italian 163 

Italy ._^ 133, 164, 173 

"Italy, At Home in" 133 

J 
Judd, Sylvester 53 

K 

Kansas 138 

"Kathrina" 178 

Keep, John 82 

Kirchmayer 186 

Kirkham & Parlett 183 

Knights of Columbus Drive 173 

Knights Templar 139 

KoUabaugamitt 76 

Kossuth, Louis 125 

L 
Labrador 10 



LaFarge 185, 186 

Lancton, George 55 

Lathrop, Captain 67, 68 

Lee, General 94 

Leonard, Clara T 161, 162 

Leonards 64 

"Letters to Young People" 144 

Leverett, Governor John 81 

Lexington 95, 171 

"Liberty Bond Drive" 173 

"Library Drive" 173 

Light Infantry 139 

"Light of Education" 186 

Lincoln, Abraham 

140, 141, 142, 143, 172 
Lincoln, Gen.. .108, 109, 110, 111, 118 

Lind, Jenny 179 

Linden Hall 185 

"Lion, The" 148 

Little River Water System 184 

Locust St 11 

"Log Path, The" 91 

Long Dingle 91 

Long Hill, 16, 38, 52, 60, 72, 74, 77, 160 

Long Hill Fort 73, 74 

Long Hill St 22, 176 

Long Island 53 

Longfellow, Henry W 31, 34, 184 

Longmeadow 

3, 13, 15, 23, 38, 82, 88, 91, 109, 121 

Longmeadow Gate 88 

"Looking Glass, The" for 1787 104 

Loon Pond 6 

Low, Will H 185 

Ludlow 88, 89, 91, 106 

Ludlow Reservoir 184 

Lyman St 178 

M 

MacDonald, Henry 163 

McKinley monument 186 

Magazine St 109 

Main St 4, 25, 37, 46, 

48, 65, 94, 105, 107, 108, 109, 136, 138, 
143, 148, 153, 162, 175, 176, 178, 186 

Maine 86 

Mallamaug 76 

Mallefield, John 92, 93 

Manchonis Mountains 89 

Maple Ave 13 

Maple St 16, 25, 78 



INDEX 



191 



Market St 147, 177 

Martiny, Philip 186 

"Mary Bump" 28 

Maryland 135 

Mason, Captain John 47 

Mason, Primus P 161 

Masonic 177 

Massachusetts 3, 32, 45, 48, 

54, 63, 64, 87, 88, 103, 105, 132, 138, 162 

Massachusetts Bay 59 

Massacksick 3, 23, 24 

Massasoit 59, 61, 63, 86 

Massasoit Lake 183 

Matthew, Father Theobold 126 

Matthews, John 33 

Matthews, Pentecost 78 

Mattoon, General 105 

Mattoon St 179 

Mechanics Arts School 183 

Meetinghouse Lane (Elm St.) 176 

Memorial Square 181 

Menedgonuk 3, 91 

Mercier, Cardinal 174 

"Meritorious Price of Our Redemption, 

The" 48 

Merriam, Ellen B 162 

Merriam, G. & C 180 

Merrick 15 

Merrick Park 144, 186 

Metacomet 61, 63 

Middletown 11 

Mill River. . .4, 10, 23, 25, 26, 38, 45, 
48, 51, 54, 55, 77, 78, 89, 90, 146, 184 

Mill St 176, 178 

Miller, Capt 89 

Miller, Constable Thomas 75, 76,77, 176 

Miller's River 84 

Missouri Compromise 178 

Mittineague 3, 91 

Mohegan Indians 59, 63 

Monson 7 

Morgan, Miles 27, 34, 37, 175 

Morris, Henry 158, 165 

Morris, Oliver B 158, 164 

Moseley, Capt 79 

Mount' Vernon 112 

Moxon, Rev. George 50, 62 

Mulberry St 140, 142, 148, 178 

Municipal Group 185 

Museum of Natural History 182 

Museum of N. E. Antiquities 178 



Muttaump 68 

N 

Narragansetts 59 

Nashaways 68 

National Army 138 

Nayasset 3, 23, 24 

Necessity Hill 17 

Neck, The 96 

New England 

3, 26, 32, 35, 82, 86, 92, 120, 174 

New Hampshire 3, 83, 86, 115 

New Haven 180 

"New International Dictionary The" 

180 

N. Y., N. H. &H. R. R 175 

"Niagara, The" 148 

Nichols, C. A. Co 159 

Nipmucks 60, 76 

Nonotuck, Mount 120 

Nonotucks 67, 68 

North America 10 

North Branch 6 

North Church 185 

Northampton 

60, 66, 67, 73, 81, 87, 109, 112, 115 
Northfield 66, 81, 92 

O 

Oak Grove Cemetery 12, 17 

Oakland St 175 

Oberammergau 186 

"Ocean," 149 

One-Eved-John 67, 68 

Osgood, Rev. Samuel 29, 136 

Owen, Walter T 182 

Oxford University 52 

P 

Packard, Arthur 163 

Palmer, J 171 

Paris 179 

Parks, Gen 109 

Parsons, Eli 106, 109, 110 

Parsons, Hugh 54, 55, 57 

Parsons Tavern 177 

Pasco Road 11 

Paucatuck 9, 91, 100 

Paucatuck Brook 92 

Peabody, Rev. Wm. B. 38, 125 

Peabody Cemetery 13, 175, 179 



192 



INDEX 



Pecowsic 3, 82 

Pelham 106, 109, 111, 177 

Pell and Corbett 185 

Pequot Tribe 59 

Pequot War 47, 63, 74, 82 

Philadelphia 97 

Philip, King 

61, 63, 66, 68, 72, 74, 77, 79, 80, 85, 86 
87, 92, 176 

Phips' Farm 171 

Pilgrims 60 

Pine St 93, 175 

Pleasant St 10, 44 

Plymouth 59, 63, 79 

Plymouth Colony 60, 64 

Plymouth Rock 60 

Pocumtucks 68 

"Poets and Poetry of Springfield", 111 

Poland 164 

Poor Brook 91 

Porter, Sherman D 185 

Porter Lake 185 

Praying Indians 60 

Pringridays, Edmund 78 

Probate Court 93 

Prophet's Chamber 136 

Provin IVIountain 9 

"Puritan, The" 186 

Putts Bridge 150 

Pynchon, John 21, 22, 45,51, 52, 

53, 54, 57, 58, 67, 71, 72, 74, 75, 79, 81, 
82, 84, 92, 96, 125, 132, 135, 175 
Pynchon, Mary 

21, 22, 45, 51, 84, 125, 144 
Pynchon, William 

21, 23, 24, 28, 30, 31,34,45, 46, 47, 48, 
49, 50, 52, 54, 61, 76, 96, 145, 160, 175 

R 

Ramapogue 91 

Ramapogue Hist. Soc 178 

Red Cross Drive 173 

Reid, Robert 186 

Reippumsick 76 

Renwick, Aspinwall & Renwick . . .182 

Republican Convention 178 

Revolution 

89, 93, 96, 98, 103, 105, 106, 107, 
112, 115, 116, 139, 140, 143, 146, 177 

Rhode Island 59, 64 

Rhode Islanders 96 



Rice, Caleb 133 

Rice, Elizabeth 133 

Rice, Wm 18 

Richardson, H. H 185 

Riedesel, General 98, 99 

Riley, John 34, 88 

Round Hill 4, 17, 23, 25, 146, 163 

Rowlandson, Mrs. Mary 83 

Roxbury 21, 96 

Russia 179 



Saco River 61 

Sagamore Sam 67, 68 

Sagamores 60 

St. Gau dens, Augustus. . .144, 179, 186 

St. James Ave 90 

St. James Ave. Bridge 4 

St. Michael's Cathedral 149 

St. Vincent de Paul, Society of. . . .162 

St. Vincent's Home 176 

Salem 46 

Sanderson, Juduthan 96 

Sanford St 105 

Santiago 163 

Saratoga 98 

Schonunganuck 91, 120 

School St 127, 140, 178 

Schurz, Carl 144 

Science Museum 182 

Scituate 61 

Scot, Dred 178 

Second Regiment 162 

Seth 100 

Shays' Rebellion 103, 107, 108, 

109, 110, 111, 112, 177, 178 
Shepard, Gen. Wm. . 107. 108, 109, 110 

Shiawassee 3 

Sikes, Richard 42 

"Silver Stream" 91 ' 

vSimsburv 82 

Sixteen Acres 6, 90, 110 

Sixteen Acres Mill Pond 6 

Skipmaug 91 

Skipmuck 91 

Skunk's Misery 90 

Smith, David Jr 106 

Smith, George W. V 179, 182 

Smith, Henry 42. 50, 175 

Smith, Horace 160, 182 

Smith & Wesson 189. 



INDEX 



193 



Smith Farm 17 

Sokonokis 61 

Soldiers' Monument 159 

Somers 109 

South Deerfield 11 

South Main St 11, 176 

Span'sh War 162 

Spring St 4, 127, 183 

Springlield Bovs' Ckib 183 

Spfld. Fire & Marine Ins. Co 150 

Spr'ingfield Lake 11 

"Springfield Musket" 127 

Springfield Republican. . . 178, 179, 186 

Springfield Rifle 128 

vSpruceland Ave 176 

Squakheags 68 

Squando 61 

Squaw Tree 90 

Squaw Tree Dingle 91 

State Arsenal 162 

State St 5, 78, 

91, 95, 110, 131, 146, 147, 177, 183, 185 

Stearns, Charles 184 

Stearns Park 184 

Stebbins, Goodv 57 

Stewart, Tohn. ! 30, 31, 34, 43, 114 

"vStreet" 127 

"Streeters" 127 

Suflfield 11, 87, 121 

Sugarloaf, Mt 11, 68 

Sumner, Charles 138 

Sumner, Fort 141 

vSunderland 11 

Swamp Fight 86 

Swan Pond 6 

vSweden 164 

Swink, Peter 34, 161 



Tatham (Tattum) 9, 91 

Taylor, Jonathan 57 

Taunton 106 

Technical High School 174, 183 

Thompson's Dingle 91 

Three Mile Brook 75 

Ticonderoga 98, 100 

Tiffany Co 185 

"Tiger, The" 148 

Tilton, Edw. 1 181 

Titan's Piazza 9 



Titan's Pier 9 

Toll Bridge , 177 

Tom, Little 9 

Tom, Mt 9, 18, 22, 58, 121 

Toto 60. 74, 79 

Town Brook 4, 176 

Training Day 140 

Treat, Major Robert 68, 79 

Triangle Drive 173 

Trinity Church 186 

Trumbull, Judah 65 

Turner, Capt 84, 85 

Turner's Falls 84 

Two Mile Pond 6 

U 

Uncas 63 

"Underground Railroad" 135, 178 

Union, Springfield 140, 141 

Union vSt 13, 126, 142, 148 

United States Army 4 

United States Arsenal 133, 184 

Unity, Church of the 185 

Usquaiok 23, 24, 89 

V 

Van Horn Park 185 

Venturer's Pond 6 

Vermont 3, 115 

Vermont, Seal of 133 

Victory Drive 173 

Village Blacksmith 31 

Vincentian Fathers 73 

Virginia 138, 140 

Vocational School 183 

W 

Wachogue 90 

Wachuet 90 

Wachuet, Great 90 

Wachuet, Little 90 

Wait, Joseph 177 

Wales 34 

Wallamanumps 3 

Walnut St 13, 127 

Wampanoags 59, 63, 80 

Wamsutta 61 

War Chest Drive 173 

Ware, Edith M 133 

Warriner, Jeremy 179 



194 



INDEX 



Washington, George 

94, 95, 98 112, 126, U3 
Watershops 

4, 90, 127, 143, 150, 174, 184 

Watershops Pond 4 

Webster, Daniel . 140, 143, 178 

Webster, Noah 180 

Webster's Dictionary 157, 180 

Wequogan 60 

Wesson, Daniel B 160, 161 

Wesson Hospital 5, 91 

West Indies 79 

West Springfield 9, 35, 53, 58, 

75, 79, 88, 101, 106, 115, 133, 174,. 178 
West Springfield Common 

91, 101, 109, 178 
Westfield 

3, 9, 24, 67, 87, 88, 92, 99, 108 
Whistler, James, (Major) .... 125, 179 

Whistler, Jas. McNeil 179 

White Mountains 11, 12 

Whitney, Dr 109 

Wigwam Hill 89 

Wilbraham 88, 89, 109 

Wilbraham Hill 72 



Wilbraham Mountains 4 

Wilbraham Road 6 

Williams, Roger 59 

Willard, Justice 124 

Willow St 126 

Winchester Square 6, 12 

Windsor 47, 48, 75 

Windsor Indian 78 

Winter Hill 96 

Worcester 115, 123 

Worcester County 60, 106, '112 

Worid War Roll of Honor 174 

World's End 90 

Woronoco 176 

Worthington, Colonel John. . . .97, 120 

Worthington St 4, 176 

Worthy 101 

Y 

Yale College 120 

Yankee Division 174 

York St 4, 26, 176 

Y. M. C. A 183, 184 

Young Men's Institute 181 

Y. W. C. A 184 



